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There’s a reason why Nintendo is still going strong today —
has made some of the greatest videogames of all time, from
Super Mario World to The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.
Over the years, Nintendo has created a variety of different
games systems, from the NES and Game Boy to the Wii U and
Switch, and those consoles have allowed gamers of all ages
to enjoy a staggering variety of games. Of course, it’s not just
Nintendo who make amazing games for Nintendo consoles,
and the following book is a testament to that. The Retro
Gamer team has painstakingly looked at the many great
games to have appeared on Nintendo hardware over the
years, and put together a definitive list of 100 games that you
really must experience. Additionally, we’ve scoured our
archives to deliver fantastic in-depth articles on a large number
of the featured games. If you loved playing Nintendo while you
were growing up, or have only just discovered the company’s
consoles, you'll find this book to be an essential guide. Now
excuse us — we're off to play Breath Of The Wild...

This bookazine is printed on recycled paper. It’s important that
we care about our planet and make a difference where we can,
for us and every generation that follows.

GAMES 10 REAY
ERORE YOU DIE
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100 GAMES TO PLAY
BEFORE YOU DIE -
NINTENDO CONSOLES EDITION

Your guide to the best games to play on Nintendo's
systems, from arcade hits like Donkey Kong to the
Switch masterpiece, Breath Of The Wild

COIN-OP CAPERS: DONKEY KONG

Everything you need to know about Nintendo's
arcade masterpiece, including how to beat it

GAME CHANGERS:
SUPER MARIO BROS

Discover how Shigeru Miyamoto's 8-bit
platformer helped define Mario's later adventures

REVISITING DUCK HUNT
We take a look back at the fun light-gun shooter
that became an essential NES launch game

ULTIMATE GUIDE:
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

The first entry in the Zelda series remains a
brilliant game and this in-depth guide will help
explain why

THE MAKING OF: BATTLETOADS
Find out how Rare looked to the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles as inspiration for its new fighter

ULTIMATE GUIDE:
0) ed ANd (0H 130 os)

Discover why Nintendo's classic platformer
remains one of the best NES games

RETRO REVIVAL: KID ICARUS
It's not the best-known NES game, but this classy
adventure is still worth playing

yA)

+ 7

NLS
z

THE MAKING OF: TETRIS

Discover how the Game Boy version of the popular
puzzle game became a worldwide hit that drove
Game Boy sales into the stratosphere

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND
OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING

We reveal the many reasons why this remains
Link's greatest portable adventure. Will you be
able to awaken the Wind Fish?

GAME CHANGERS: POKEMON
RED, BLUE & YELLOW

Discover how Game Freak's collect-'em-up
became one of the most successful Nintendo
franchises of all time

THE MAKING OF: MONSTER MAX
Jon Ritman reveals how he worked with Bernie
Drummond to create one of the best isometric
adventures to appear on the Game Boy

RETRO REVIVAL: SUPER MARIO
LAND 2: SIX GOLDEN COINS

Drew Sleep explains why he'll always take a date
with Mario over any evening with the musician
Jools Holland

ULTIMATE GUIDE:
CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS

Get the lowdown on Konami's incredible run-and-
gun, fromits fantastic bosses to its vast array of
explosive weapons

THE MAKING OF: YOSHI'S ISLAND
The directors of Super Mario World's sequel
discuss how they pushed the platform genre as
far as it could go ona 16-bit system

100 GAME CHANGERS:
UU Ona
Find out what happened when Mario got bored of
plumbing and decided to take a go kart for aspin,
inventing anew sub genre in the process

104 THE MAKING OF: WILD GUNS
We speak to the team behind the incredible
Super Nintendo action game and learn how they
successfully reinvented the cult blaster fora
brand-new generation

108 THE MAKING OF:
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

Rare's Brendan Gunn and Gregg Mayles take us
behind the scenes of the SNES game that helped
revive interest in Donkey Kong

114 THE MAKING OF: SHADOWRUN
Find out how the team at Beam Software created
an exciting digital version of FASA‘s popular RPG
for the Super Nintendo

120 RETRO REVIVAL: PILOTWINGS
Why this early Super Nintendo flight simulator
remains one of the best games you can enjoy on
iat -eNV) Cla)

122 SUPER MARIO 64 -
NINTENDO’S 3D GAME CHANGER
Experts within the platform genre explain why
Super Mario 64 was one of the most important
platformers you're ever likely to play

132 THE MAKING OF:
DIDDY KONG RACING
Discover how the team at Rare took inspiration
from Mario Kart 64 to create their exciting
adventure-based alternative

WAKE UP, | WANT TO GO ON

AN ADVENTURE TOO...

136 THE MAKING OF:
SPACE STATION SILICON VALLEY
We go behind the scenes of one of the zaniest
games to ever grace the Nintendo 64

140 GAME CHANGERS: THE LEGEND
OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME
Nintendo's first 3D Zelda not only pushed the
company to its limits, but also helped to reinvent
the adventure genre. Find out how

144 GOLDENEYE:
THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT
Allnine main members of the original GoldenEye
team reassemble to discuss how they made one
of the system's best first-person shooters

158 CLASSIC MOMENTS: LYLAT WARS
We've collected all the greatest bits from
Nintendo's incredible space shooter. How many of
them do you remember playing?

160 THE MAKING OF:
SNA Re yall

Producer Masato Maegawa explains how
Treasure’s dynamic run-and-gun pushed the
Nintendo 64 to its absolute limits

164 THE MAKING OF:
BANJO-KAZOOIE

We speak to the talented team that took on the
might of Super Mario 64

172 RETRO REVIVAL:
BEETLE ADVENTURE RACING!

Darran Jones explains why you need to seek out
this entertaining N64 racer

174 THE MAKING OF:
RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE
Discover how Capcom used the power of the
GameCube to completely reinvent its classic
PlayStation survival horror game

180 GAME CHANGERS:
METROID PRIME

Itcertainly took along time for a 3D Metroidto
arrive, but Nintendo and Retro Studios ensured it
was certainly worth the wait

184 THE MAKING OF:
STAR WARS: ROGUE LEADER
The team at Factor 5 reveal how they managed
to make one of the best Star Wars games to ever
appear on the GameCube

190 RETRO REVIVAL:
RESIDENT EVIL 4

Capcom's fourth entry inits popular series
reinvented the genre andremains the best
Resident Evil game, especially on the Wii

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

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Donkey Kong

= Year: 1981 = Platform: Arcade

Nintendo’s stint in the arcade business was relatively brief,
1 00 as its rapid rise to dominance in the console business during the

Eighties made the coin-op business something of a secondary
concern. But it’s impossible to ignore this period of the developer's history, as it
gave us Donkey Kong- the first appearance
of the titular ape, as well as a moustachioed
hero by the name of Mario, both designed
by Shigeru Miyamoto.

It's not just a museum piece, though

— Donkey Kong is an early classic of the
platform genre, and one that still draws
fierce competition from high-score chasers
around the world. While the game has a
simple goal — either reach the top of the
screen or pop the rivets from scaffolding,
depending on the stage — it's incredibly tricky
to play due to the unpredictable movement
of the enemies. If you feel like challenging
yourself, play it today.

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Final Fantasy VI

= Year: 1994 = Platform: SNES

The SNES isn’t exactly short of great RPGs, and that's
99 exactly why you should pay attention when people tell you that

Final Fantasy Vlis one of the console’s best. The game shows
just how far the developer had come graphically on the SNES - seriously,
go back and compare it to Final Fantasy lV — and featured the best game
design the series had seen. But it was the plot that really did the heavy
lifting, as the game featured the best writing of the series’ Nintendo years.
The main antagonist, Kefka, proved to be an especially memorable villain
thanks to his flamboyance, dark one-liners and truly terrifying nihilism.

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95 Monster Max

= Year: 1995 = Platform: Game Boy

Following in the footsteps of games such as Head

Over Heels, Monster Maxis the final evolution of

Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond's isometric
adventure formula. The
game was fantastic and
received great reviews
in 1994, but it sold poorly
(eV R COMM acl (ct ioe
Despite being a lost
classic, it’s still pretty easy
to pick up, so do that.

Pe AMCs ed

This rhythm action game tasks players with doing
all manner of odd things in time with music, from
plucking hairy onions to guiding a rabbit across the
sea. Nintendo’s final Game Boy Advance game was
only released in Japan,
but you should track it
down anyway - it’s not
particularly complex,
but its accessibility
and sense of humour
work wonders.

93 Super Mario Maker 2

= Year: 2019 ® Platform: Switch

When Nintendo hands players the keys to the
Mushroom Kingdom, things get a little bit weird.
Creating your own levels is enjoyable and Nintendo
includes 100 stages, but go online and you'll find
bizarre storytelling stages, spectacular automatic
runs and some truly evil challenge courses
designed by sadists. These break all of Nintendo’s
rules, and that’s the fun of it.

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Bayonetta 2

@ Year: 2014 = Platform: Wii U

] 1 hardcore action gamers to the Wii U,
Nintendo decided to rescue Platinum
Games' bewitching heroine — Bayonetta 2 had
already been started, but shelved at publisher Sega's
behest. It didn't save the troubled console, but
players got a tremendous game out of the deal. The

When it was looking for a way to bring

PP EAGTND

Sonic Rush

Year: 2005 = Platform: DS

Given Sonic’s origins as a character

designed to compete with Nintendo, it’s

ironic that he’s flourished on Nintendo
hardware — and Sonic Rushis a great example of that.
The idea of a 2D Sonic platform game was nothing
new, but the series’ first DS game revitalised the
formula by employing 3D sparingly for mid-stage
interludes and boss battles, as well as introducing
a boost mechanic that allowed Sonic or newcomer
Blaze to charge straight through enemies at top speed.
The icing on the cake was an awesome soundtrack by
Hideki Naganuma, who successfully merged Sonic’s
signature upbeat audio with the sample-heavy style he
had perfected in the Jet Set Radio series.

original game had inherited a fine hack-and-slash
template from the Devil May Cry series, which many
of its developers had worked on, and the sequel
further refines it with improved pacing and an even
more beautiful art direction. The game throws
overwhelming numbers of enemies at you, but its
genius is that you always feel able to conquer them.

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Super Mario
Bros 3

= Year: 1988 = Platform: NES

Super Mario Bros was an astounding platform
87 game, and it’s fair to say that Super Mario Bros

2 wasn't quite what players had in mind for a
follow-up — whether that was the sadistic pseudo-expansion
Japanese players got, or the reskinned Doki Doki Panic released
internationally. Super Mario Bros 3 was the true successor, and
it didn’t disappoint — it was bigger and better in every way. The
world map allowed players to chart their own course through
the game. New power-ups like the raccoon suit gave Mario new

abilities, increasing the scope of level design. Graphics were

completely overhauled and refined, and

Nintendo's design team really began
r)) courses that have defined Mario to

<i the music was greatly enhanced with
(Ay) sampled drum beats. Additionally,
eT
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the tricky and imaginative assault
4 this day, with the excellent airship
stages as highlights. Nothing else
\S € on the NES comes close.

PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

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Tetris

= Year: 1989 = Platform: Game Boy

Alexey Pajitnov’s classic puzzle game is so simple
86 that it seems like it should be dull. After all, your sole

aim is to manipulate blocks to create unbroken rows
until you've failed enough times that there’s no room left on the
screen. But we love turning order into chaos, and the tension of
seeing how long you can last against the ever-increasing speed
of the blocks turns a simple game into a deliciously addictive one.
If that wasn't enough, the game's music was just as catchy — just
look at those screenshots and tell us you can’t hear Korobeiniki.
Everyone from world leaders to your grandmother loves Tetris.
Join them, now.

CO. eee

Xenoblade Chronicles

= Year: 2010 = Platform: Wii

Though it’s best known for its ability to woo casual
85 players, the Wii underwent a JRPG-driven renaissance

late in its life, thanks to games like Pandora’s Tower and
The Last Story, but Xenoblade Chronicles led the charge. While the
plot was pretty standard fare for the genre, the game's design was
forward-thinking, with a real-time battle system that blended automatic
attacks with manually activated Arts, and systems that allow you to
intercept and deliberately lure enemy attacks. The open environments
and streamlined quest system also helped to drive the genre forward.
If you're without a Wii, there's a very good new Nintendo 3DS port
available too, or you could wait for the incoming Switch remaster.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Wi]
from riding the horse Epona to entering the pit of Jabu-Jabu's belly. Many of its
innovations have been pinched by other games, from the Z-targeting system to auto-
jumping, but Ocarina Of Time remains in a class of its own. A3DS update also exists.

> SS Ss

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 13

What happens when

you remove Kirby’s

ability to hoover

up enemies with

his almighty gob?

According to this

game, he just finds

another way to take on all manner of abilities — in
this case, reconstituting his yarn body into new
forms, including cars and parachutes, so what
could have been a simple graphical gimmick is
elevated by Good-Feel’s design ingenuity.

79 1080° Snowboarding

= Year: 1998 = Platform: Nintendo 64

Nintendo's winter

sports hit blew away

the competition at

the time, thanks to its

grounded and realistic

approach to the sport

of snowboarding, po %
emphasising technical fundamentals over insane
grabs and getting unrealistic air. The game was also
beautiful, with solid, detailed character models and
neat graphical effects that hadn't previously been
seen elsewhere, like lens flare and sunlight glinting
off the snow.

78 DuckTales
i {

Capcom was well known for turning out great
Disney licensed platformers during the NES era,
and DuckTales is the most fondly remembered of
the lot. Part of that will be because of the game’s
non-linear structure, which required you to

collect items in various stages to progress, > 4
but largely it’s because hopping »)
around on Scrooge McDuck’s A
cane is just great fun.

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MC cme Va) 20) ey

Year: 2001 = Platform: Game Boy Advance

Prior to the launch of the

Game Boy Advance, only

Japanese audiences had
been able to sample the delights of
Intelligent Systems’ turn-based strategy
games — there were six Wars games
prior to Advance Wars. When we
finally got the chance to experience
them, we wondered where they had
been all our lives. Advance Wars’ dinky

tanks and cutesy soldiers provided a
universal appeal, with accessible yet
deep strategic gameplay to back it up,
and a structure that suits portable play.
With a lengthy single-player campaign,
excellent multiplayer and a range of
commanding officers with their own
unique powers to master, Advance
Wars will keep your inner general
satisfied for ages.

Tes - An

latoon

Year: 2017 = Platform: Switch

Splatoon was the surprise hit of the Wii U's

troubled life, but the sequel took the formula to the

next level. The family friendly shooter delivered similar
thrills to its predecessor, with territorial coverage and objective
control emphasised over splatting opponents in modes such
as Turf War and Tower Control, and it allowed players to defend
the honour of ketchup and mayonnaise in Splatfests. But as well
as new weapons and clothing, the game adds more substantial
single-player content (particularly in Octo Expansion) and the
ability to splat your friends in local networked games. Plus,
new Inkopolis News hosts Pearl and Marina proved to be
worthy successors to Callie and Marie!

TUL

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Contra Ill: The
Alien Wars

= Year: 1992 = Platform: SNES

Konami's classic run-and-gun channels the spirit of every
7 1 classic action movie into a game that is packed with crazy

weapons, crazier enemies and countless explosions. As the
player battles the invading alien menace through futuristic war zones, the
SNES is pushed to its limits - the game features enormous bosses, high-
speed highway chases and even two top-down stages that use Mode 7
for rotation. The developer's even achieves the seemingly impossible, with
a rotating boss and a rotating floor at the end of stage two! It’s not an easy
game, but you can drag a friend along for the ride for support — and trust us,
they'll thank you when you do.

) 3
F-Zero

. Year 1990 ag Platform: SNES

The SNES was a powerful machine when it hit the scene
79 at the beginning of the Nineties, but it needed a killer game to _

demonstrate just how it differed from the competition — and as Re
one of just two games available at launch, Nintendo put heavy faith in F-Zero as
the game to do it. The futuristic racing game was incredibly fast, but it was also
amazingly smooth thanks to the console’s signature Mode 7 feature, which allowed
smooth 3D transformations of a background plane. The soundtrack, created from
sampled sounds, featured highly memorable compositions right from the first Mute
City track. Of course, proving the machine's power was one thing, but F-Zero was
more than just a technical showcase. The game featured an exquisite handling
model and tricky track design that pushed players to their limits, as well as a devilish
elimination race format that turned an impressive game into an instant classic.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 15

16 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Star Wars
Rogue
Squadron Il:
Rogue Leader

= Year: 2001 ® Platform: GameCube

Fans had been thrilled with the original Star Wars:
66 Rogue Squadron, which was a well designed space

combat game with impressive N64 visuals. But the
sequel absolutely blew it away, demonstrating the power of the
GameCube with the most ing oor yar
authentic Star Wars experience TS
that had ever been seen on Cr cea eatin
a home console. The game
design hadn't changed a great
deal, but every X-Wing shot
sounded as crisp as you could
hope for, and every detail of
the Death Star seemed to
have been recreated in loving
detail. Forget playing Star Wars
—when you play as Rogue
Leader, the immersion is great
enough that you might as well
be Luke Skywalker himself.

The Le end Of Zelda:
A Link To The Past

= Year: 1991 = Platform: SNES

After experimenting with a different
67 style in Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link,

Nintendo went back to the original formula
for the series’ 16-bit debut, to stunning effect. Using
the power of the new SNES hardware, Nintendo
could create dramatic scenes with rain and fog, and
the story was told in more detail than ever before.
Meanwhile, Link’s quest to rescue Zelda and save
Hyrule would take him to another dimension, as
he visited an alternate ‘dark world’ that mirrored
his own. Many feel it’s the best of the series, and
it's telling that Nintendo didn’t even try to top it
until it had a whole new technological toolbox.

Metroid
Fusion

Year: 2002 = Platform: Game Boy Advance

Although many point to Vetroia's

non-linear map and acquisition of new

abilities as its signature, early games in
the series had always been marked by a sense of
isolation - Samus Aran was alone, and by extension
so were you. Metroid Fusion turned that on its head
by introducing the SA-X, a villainous doppelganger
that stalks the real Samus throughout the game, only
to unleash potentially deadly attacks just when you
least expect them. Worse yet, it’s just as powerful
as a fully powered-up Samus, and for much of the
game that puts the real deal at a distinct disadvantage.
Being alone suddenly seemed far more appealing after
playing Metroid Fusion.

Super Mario 64

@ Year: 1996 = Platform: Nintendo 64

It’s hard to overstate the impact that
6 Yh Super Mario 64 had on videogames back

in the mid-Nineties. Most developers
were still getting to grips with 3D game design, only
for Nintendo to come along and deliver an absolute
masterclass — everything from character movement
to the camera system was leagues ahead of what
any other team was putting out, to the point that it
might just be the game we've most often seen cited
as an influence by other developers. Just controlling

Mario was a joy, and the designers cleverly
recognised that 3D movement fundamentally
changed the game. Instead of linear obstacle
courses, Super Mario 64's courses had no single
end point and instead supported a variety of different
objectives, many of which were extraordinary in
their creativity. Even today, this classic remains

the benchmark by which all 3D Mario adventures

are judged, proving its enduring legacy as a classic
platform game.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

63 Zack & Wiki: Quest

For Barbaros’ Treasure
® Year: 2007 ® Platform: Wii

This criminally overlooked adventure game

revives the old point-and-click formula using the

Wii Remote in place of a mouse. Taking control of
the boy pirate Zack, you
choose which objects
to investigate, then use
them to solve puzzles by
mimicking the action you
wish to perform using

» the motion controls. It
sounds silly, but it’s an
inventive and clever use
of the technology.

era iit leat ln

= Year: 1993 = Platform: SNES

This isometric action-

RPG borrows its setting
from the popular pen-
and-paper RPG of the
same name, drawing
heavily on cyberpunk
themes. The noir
themes were unusual °

in videogames at the

time, and the cursor-based interaction system

gave you the ability to quickly shift from pressing
pedestrians for information to defending yourself
from the gun-toting baddies lurking in the shadows.

6) Kid Icarus: Uprising

= Year: 2012 = Platform: 3DS

The most unlikely Nintendo
comeback of the decade was
driven by Masahiro Sakurai’s
desire to create a third-person
shooter, which he felt would show
off the unique capabilities of the
3DS. Though it was a far cry from past
entries and had some control problems,
it was well received by critics and
succeeded in highlighting the strengths
of the hardware.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 17

18 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

56 Pokemon Sna

= Year: 1999 ® Platform: Nintendo 64

While players had plenty of fun training their
Pokémon, it wasn’t until Pokémon Snap that they
really had a chance to watch them be cute, funny
and occasionally bizarre as they acted naturally.
tn wm Cast as a photographer,
3 - your goal was to get

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them as necessary to
get the perfect pose.

55 Kid Icarus

ee) hl al le NES

Pit’s first adventure shows you how ae Ey)
game can be when genre conventions have yet

to be established. This platform game revels in its
many vertical stages, and allows Pit to wrap cael
the playfield, entering j
on the left of the

screen after he leaves

the right side. It’s a

strange experience

today, but NES

fanatics swear by it.

Shovel Knight

sought to

ictol feral CR tals)

thrills of NES

platformers

like DuckTales,

Mega Man and
Castlevania Ill. But the developer Yacht Club Games
knew that full authenticity was a fool’s choice, so it
did graphical things the NES couldn't, and avoided
repeating the flaws that the classics did possess.
The result? A game that matches the rosy tint of
your glasses.

meee ea

= Year: 1992 = Platform: SNES

Nintendo's attempt to create a multiplayer F-Zero
never bore fruit on the SNES, as the system
couldn’t handle a map of the required size while
running split-screen multiplayer. But the project
that came out of it was even more valuable, as
Mario Kart is arguably gaming’s most successful
franchise spin-off. Many favour this original
| Slee I DUES eam Ta tava OR Ue 1 ge
ae = as driving skill
yr played a greater
role in race
ec R arama)
items picked up
along the way.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Kirby’s Adventure

# Year: 1993 ys NES

In his Game Boy debut, Kirby had been

a cute but slightly unremarkable character

—he could inflate himself like a balloon
and suck up enemies, but that was it. His first home
console appearance was the game that really defined
him, as it was here that he gained his copy ability. By
swallowing enemies, Kirby could use their abilities,
giving him access to a large range of moves without
the need for convoluted controls or a contrived power-
up system. The game was a technical marvel too, Y
with colourful graphics that showed that Nintendo's
8-bit hardware could still turn out an attractive game,
some ten years after it was first engineered.

000
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Professor Layton And
The Lost Future

Year: 2008 = Platform: DS

| KIRBY :
SGORE :

/ xrrpy : 00
| SCORE : 0004900

The third game in the popular

Professor Layton series sees the

puzzle-solving professor meeting a
future version of his apprentice, Luke. Things
have gone terribly wrong in his time, and he
needs Layton’s help to set things right
again. Like the previous Professor Layton
games, this title plays out as an adventure
featuring plenty of animated cut scenes,
conversations with the locals and of
course, a variety of puzzles. These
fiendish brainteasers required keen
eyesight, a logical thought process
and some mathematical
skill to solve,
and proved to
be perfect for
kids, seasoned
gamers and
# even older
players that
wanted a new
challenge
to go alongside
the likes of Dr
Kawashima's
Brain Training.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 19

Yoshi's Island

= Year: 1995 = Platform: SNES

Serving as one last hurrah before the Mario team moved
47 over to the N64 for good, Yoshi's Island embraced the
contradictory ideals of chasing a hand-drawn, crayon sketch
aesthetic while including the high-performance Super FX 2 chip to push
technically impressive effects. But while the graphics were lovely, as usual
it was the game design that was the real draw. Yoshi's need to keep hold of
Baby Mario focused the player, while allowing him to
be constantly recovered lowered the difficulty

Cy) compared to Super Mario World. The usual
clever stage design and some imaginative
we sequences where Yoshi turns into

vehicles made it an unmissable debut
for a new platform star.

Castlevania Ill:
Dracula’s Curse

= Year: 1989 = Platform: NES

The last of the Castlevania
games to appear on the NES
follows Trevor Belmont's

attempt to slay the most notorious of all
vampires. While the game adopts the
template of the original Castlevania with
players wandering through challenging
platform stages and killing off standard
horror monsters, it adds to it tremendously.
Branching paths through the game are
present, meaning you'll require multiple
sessions to see everything, and the game
includes extra playable characters with their
own abilities. The game’s soundtrack is
one of the system's best, but do seek out
the Japanese version if you can — the extra
sound channels afforded by the Famicom
hardware add greatly to the atmosphere.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Astro Boy:
Omega Factor

= Year: 2003 = Platform: Game Boy Advance

Few developers understood action games as
4 4 well as Treasure in its heyday, and this platform beat-

‘em-up is testament to that. As you guide the famous
robot boy through various stages, you'll constantly be charging
and using a variety of special attacks to stun, repel and destroy
huge numbers of enemies. There are plenty of crazy bosses,
you'll get to meet loads of Osamu Tezuka’s characters, and the
visuals push the hardware to breaking point (really, check out
some of the slowdown). The highlight is that just when you think
the game is ending, the quest opens up and you get to revisit past
stages to set history right and avert a bad ending.

LAS

Sie annnegsa)

Super Smash
Bros Melee

= Year: 2001 = Platform: GameCube

The first instalment of Nintendo's __ the player base discovered that the game has
45 unconventional crossover fighting avery high skill ceiling, giving the game an

festival was popular, but the unintended second life as a fiercely competitive
sequel’s expanded cast and improved visuals fighting game that became a tournament
ensured that it found an even greater audience. mainstay. This scene has kept the game alive
Super Smash Bros Melee is first and foremost for the best part of two decades, and allowed

a party game, with players encouraged to mix it to remain relevant where its sequels have

it up in crazy stages with items that drastically faded from attention, as some very high-level
change the outcome of battles. But in their players love the glitches and balance quirks that
drive to best one another, a certain section of can only be found in this version of the game.

43 42 Al

TIME es

= Pts + 2 3 167 120920

ae | fe ie Super Mario
, a ie World

Super Punch-Out!!
Year: 1994 = Platform: SNES

Mario had many friends before his SNES
debut, but he didn’t really have a proper

SSS ae ane ee ocr sidekick. Thankfully Super Mario World
Boxing is a sport that struggles to translate remedied that by introducing Yoshi. As well as being
well to videogames, but Nintendo solved the coe baa able to ride the cute dinosaur, Mario could direct him
incompatibilities by simply ignoring the rules. — ” to flick out his tongue and snatch enemies back into
Super Punch-Out!! pits you against cartoonish his gaping maw. Of course, that alone doesn’t make
caricatures such as Super Mario World great. What makes Super Mario
ee the reggae fighter Bob y/ World great is its incredible wealth of hidden secrets,
£ Charlie, kung fu kick ' with levels having multiple exits that lead to new areas
Se >=.) expert Dragon Chan and ; with even more concealed goodies. Finding all of the
SD denen UCM ck Curelastl(e) game’s 96 level exits is a true joy that will keep you
os BM meM el accilenccrlale! ceri i eel occupied for ages.

smart pattern recognition

a iOS ETeR UAB <BR [cle] AVA D = ; ; K sy :

Space Station
Silicon VENT = Year: 1997 = Platform: Nintendo 64

(= EM eA eR LCL 8A oo You'd be forgiven for wondering Racing also boasted an adventure mode,

If you want a job done 3 6 why any system with a Mario Kart complete with honest-to-goodness boss battles.
properly, do it yourself game would ever need any other Plus, it was a good place to check out the Rare
ere) meh Ual-\acte mele kart racing offerings, but Rare answered that stars of the future, including a bear by the name
poor Evo can’t do much question emphatically with the incredibly fun of Banjo and some squirrel called Conker. Now,
by itself. But it can take Diddy Kong Racing. Mario Kart 64 might have any chance that we could kindly get the Timber
possession of other had road racing, but it didn’t have hovercrafts The Tiger platform game we've been waiting so
creatures, allowing it to and it certainly didn’t have planes. Diddy Kong patiently for?

solve puzzles and try to

solve the mystery of what happened aboard the
space station. This quirky adventure features plenty
of humour and some truly innovative ideas.

Super Mario Odyssey

Year: 2017 = Platform: Switch

Mario's most recent 3D adventure is a real treat,
incorporating open-world game design that allows
you to traverse huge stages and achieve objectives
whenever you want. The game's highlight is new
pal Cappy, a hat that allows Mario to possess living
things including frogs, Koopa Troopers and even
colossal dinosaurs, in order to take control of them
and complete puzzles.

Hey *® You

PALLET Torh?

came From

Pokemon Red/Blue

= Year: 1996 = Platform: Game Boy

ooo ea

Just when the Game Boy was beginning
32 to look a little bit tired in the mid-Nineties,

this game turned into an enormous cultural
phenomenon and gave the system a shot in the arm
in Japan, before doing the same internationally a few
years later. Pokémon -— or Pocket Monsters, in its
original Japanese form — tasks players with collecting
151 colourful critters, which can be trained to battle
against one another. Any RPG of that length and
quality would have been appreciated, but Pokémon's
design was truly inspired, turning RPG conventions
on their heads. Random battles went from being an
annoying interruption to a welcome chance to add a
powerful ally to your party. What's more, the game
took advantage of the system’s portability by letting
players get out and trade with one another — and
to ensure they did, creatures were split across the
versions. It's still just as compelling today.

IT?S DANGEROUS TO GO
ALONE! TAKE THIS.

The Legend
Of Zelda =

= Year: 1986 ® Platform: NES =

To really get a feel for how the first entry in this action-RPG
3 1 series felt at the time, you need to play it without the temptation

to look at a guide or a YouTube walkthrough. Cast your mind
back to a simpler time, when information was hard to come by. Walk Link
into the cave, grab that sword and shield, and then where do you go?
Anywhere. That was the beauty of Ze/da— it gave you a whole world to
explore, mysteries to investigate and monsters to slay. The game made
you feel like an adventurer and a hero, just like Link on the screen. Too few
games do that today.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 23

a. Rees
SAAS

IRETERG
BEA

REIREL

WarioWare, Inc:
Minigame Mania

Year: 2003 = Platform: Game Boy Advance

The first entry in the WarioWare

series remains the best in our

humble opinion. It’s a series of
simple games that need to be completed in
a few short seconds and they range from
the mundane to the bizarre. You might
shake paws with a dog, help a lady sniff an
unwelcome bogey back up into her nose or
try and catch a pint as it’s passed at you. A
new character is introduced on each stage
that typically showcases games based
around a certain theme, from sports to
classic Nintendo games. It won't take long to complete, but you'll be having
so much fun you simply won't care about its brevity.

ATp,

(iLL
[ca]

= |

24 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Monster Boy And The
Cursed Kingdom

= Year: 2018 = Platform: Switch

Originally planned as a sequel
2 6 to Game Atelier'’s Flying Hamster, a

cancelled Kickstarter campaign and a
team-up with FDG Entertainment led to this game
becoming the latest instalment of the long-running
Monster World series. It's a great fit for the game
too, as Cursed Kingdom is effectively a fantastic
homage to the wonderful Wonder Boy III: The
Dragon’s Trap. \t's a metroidvania at its heart, with
new areas opening up as you unlock new animal

forms that range from a snake that can cling to
walls, to a flying fire-breathing dragon and a pig

that can use its snout to sniff out secrets. As your
adventure continues, you'll have to continually
switch forms in order to solve puzzles, leading to
some truly head-scratching, but ultimately satisfying
moments. Filled with familiar tunes from the popular
series and boasting colourful, outrageous-looking
visuals, Cursed Kingdom is an absolute delight.
Don't miss it.

Dead Space:
Extraction

= Year: 2009 = Platform: Wii

This spin-off of the Dead Space series
25 was tailor-made to suit the more

modest aesthetics and unique control
system of the Wi. It’s a fine trade-off delivering
an exceptionally creepy horror experience and
plenty of opportunity to put your Wii remote
through its paces as you shoot down hordes
of Necromorphs. Despite its light-gun origins,
Extraction is a proper story-fuelled experience
with interesting characters, and a constantly
twisting plot that neatly ties to the original game.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Grand Theft Auto:

Chinatown Wars
Year: 2009 = Platform: DS

While the series never hit home Nintendo consoles,
the DS did get this exceptionally good offering.
With a distinctive cel-shaded style, Chinatown Wars
is still a blast to play thanks to its decent story and

Pm interesting characters, some
\j © clever uses of the DS's touch
; screen and a ridiculously
deep drug-dealing
minigame. Portable violence
i in the palm of your hand.

eek Sie ae
D

aie
a bah

Pilotwings
Year: 1990 = Platform: SNES

Who would have thought that learning to fly

could be so much fun? Nintendo EAD’s game
requires you to master several types of air-based
contraptions (as well as skydiving) including
jetpacks and hang gliders 8... (a) j=

across progressively =
tougher courses. Please your as
instructors and you'll be able ie

to take on one final dangerous Ft .
mission to show off the many -

RY OlU MV cM aATeRI(clicren

Snake Rattle N Roll

Year: 1990 = Platform: NES

es = Rare released some cracking
Se oe CET Ken lceN cM elt acl
oy Teck \m old-age eal Meal tclalg
i a isometric gem. The aim of

the game is to slither across
the large isometric levels

= (ideally with a friend in tow)
and eat as many Nibbley Pibbleys as possible. Once
you've eaten enough, you can head to the end-
of-level scales, weigh yourself and reach the next
stage. Hitting enemies causes your snake to lose a
segment of its body, meaning you'll want to tackle
each stage as carefully as possible.

Banjo-Kazooie
Year: 1998 = Platform: Nintendo 64

ry The best N64 platformer

- that isn’t Super Mario 64

$ works largely because of §
the interplay between its

two lead characters. The
bickering between
Banjo the . ,

bear and his bird partner Kazooie » (al re
never gets old, while they share al
some great moves between them,

X
which allow them to navigate the
sandbox-styled worlds. It’s easily \ \)
the best game in the series and still holds Ss »
up today. | el | 7
Y i
y
100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YO 2)

hn i i)

Despite utilising
a first-person
perspective, Vetroid

Prime never feels like an all-out
shooter. Retro Studios ensures
that the focus of Samus’ quest
is always on exploration first
(just like the earlier games) and
making the most out of her new
skills, which slowly unlock more
and more of the alien planet

she visits. It cleverly blends
puzzles with tight level design,
offers some tremendous boss
encounters, including plenty of
classic Metroid villains, and has
an incredible atmosphere that
still makes it utterly compelling
to play through today. It's
also available on the Wii with
motion-based FF
controls

and its two
sequels, but
the original
version still
works best
for us.

| tee

Fire Emblem 4
Awakening |

= Year: 2012 = Platform: 3DS \N

Due to poor sales of the previous DS game (which
1 6 never received a UK release), Awakening was going
to be the last roll of the dice for the series. As a result
Intelligent Systems made a number of changes, including
the ability to disable the popular ‘permadeath’ feature, having
characters pair up in the field, and having heroes defend each
other or assist in attacks if they are placed next to each other.
These new mechanics offer a whole new level of strategy
and also help make the series more accessible than ever. The
changes resulted in critical and commercial acclaim and the
series is now stronger than it’s ever been.

Ce ee

i
Str

Mag
Skill

Spd

Lck + 0
Def +0
Res + 0
Mov + 0

Resident Evil 4:
Wii Edition

= Year: 2007 = Platform: Wii

has been ported to other systems since it made its debut on

the Wii. The reason for the large number of conversions is
that it remains a tremendous romp through the Resident Evil universe,
fa) thanks to the return of Leon Kennedy, a brand-new over-the-shoulder
viewpoint (that countless games shamelessly stole) a selection of
immensely satisfying weapons and a delightfully silly plot. We prefer
this Wii version over the GameCube original, as it has all the additional
content from the PS2 and PC versions as well as excellent motion
controls that genuinely enhance an already amazing game.

1 5 We've lost count of the number of times Capcom’s game

ei
Syaeye Lh

= Year: 2017 © Platform: Switch

While it was released on both the Wii
1 yh U and Switch, the latter system is the

version to opt for as it offers far better
performance. It’s a fresh reinvention of Nintendo’s
long-running series thanks to its open-world
setting, the ability to create meals and potions to
enhance your abilities, weapon degradation, and
a frightfully realistic-feeling world that allows you
to manipulate fire and other elements to your own

Mario & Luigi:

Superstar Saga
Year: 2003 _ Platform: Game Boy Advance

While it borrows elements from Paper Mario, Mario
& Luigi is very much its own game. It features some
excellent, easy-to-understand combat mechanics,
the story is genuinely
enjoyable, and the
brothers can combine to
create unique new moves.
Best of all it’s extremely
funny, with plenty of nods
to the Mario series.

re Acee
im dal: i

advantage. Some Sle larlale(-Ten na taea ET aels gs
dungeons compared to earlier games in the ee

but there’s so much to do in Breath Of The Wil
fal ai aera (LMA 1h PRS Lol eKe NI Ke tn)

similar games, but it adds plenty of its ownideas ~

and feels incredibly fresh and unique because of

it. It’s quite possibly the finest Zeldagame we've
ever played and it leaves us tremendously excited
for the recently announced sequel.

AY = BDA

Year: 1999 _ Platform: Game insite

Okay, we're cheating a
little here. In addition

to featuring a truly a
astonishing portoflrem’s 9 “=~
arcade game, Bob Pape
sneakily addedthe second _
} tats =
arcade hit too, making — :

this exceptional value
for money. The DX is a nod to not only its deluxe
status, but a brand new mode which mixes both
games together into a suitably epic experience.

Beetle

Adventure Borl|
Year: 1999 _ Platform: Ninte: lo 64

This neat arcade-style racer works partly Ree
it's great fun to tear around in a Volkswagen Beetle,
but also because there’s so much to discover in it;
each courseis absolutely _ = =
chock full of interesting Gian ue 3 4
shortcuts and alternate rr re *
TeoUL wea Ney co LUTTI I ™yY
Australian release swaps ry "| At

the Beetles out for boring g

HSV Commodores.

”

Sin And Punishment

= Year: 2000 = Platform: Nintendo 64

While some will argue that the Wii
1 0 sequel is also worthy of inclusion,

we're plumping for Treasure’s original
because it often pushes Nintendo's console to
near breaking point. Watching Sin & Punishment
in action really is something, it flings all sorts
of crazy effects around the screen, piles on
spectacular set-piece after spectacular set-

8 7

piece, and is all held together by some truly
satisfying combat mechanics. Like Super Mario
64, Sin & Punishment's control system is built
around the console’s unique-looking pad and it
does admittedly take a while to master. Once
you do however you'll be able to pull off all sorts
of insane moves and look like a gaming god in
the process.

Osu! Tatakae!
Ouendan

= Year: 2005 = Platform: DS

used the touch screen for tacky gimmicks, or as a way

to genuinely enhance their games. Ouendan is a perfect
example of the latter school of thought, forcing you to combine
intricate taps and strokes to deliver one of the best rhythm action
games we've ever played. You effectively take on the role of
a cheerleading squad and must pull off your dance moves in
order to help a variety of different people. While everything is in
Japanese comic-style panels on the top screen to let you easily
follow the story. The tunes are superb too, mixing a variety of
popular Japanese genres.

Prererereey | Gai

Snot

e Legend Of Zelda:

Z iP enin
oa 1993 = Platform: Game Boy

Many consider this to be the best 2D Zelda and
it’s not hard to see why. The dungeon design
throughout is truly exceptional, while the inventive
Pes fights are taxing, but never overwhelming.
= The surprisingly dark
storyline is one of the
L. best the series has
er Reicrce nial ena
teehee EAA
a | Game Boy never taxes
7 4 the design team’s lofty
| ambitions.

Fire Emblem:

Wild Guns

= Year: 1994 = Platform: SNES

of Natsume’s game on release, meaning it

now sells for utterly stupid prices on eBay.
Set in a weird world that combines the Wild West
with Steampunk, Wild Guns is notable for its gigantic
bosses, satisfying shooting mechanics (virtually
everything onscreen can be shot to pieces) and neat
scoring system. It’s initially hard to acclimatise to due
to its interesting setup (you have control of both your
character and gunsight), but once it clicks you'll find
yourself effortlessly mowing down the hordes of
enemies that get thrown at you. An enhanced version
was recently re-released on Switch, meaning there's
no excuse not to play it.

2 Araaanaly, no one really saw the wrlace

ea MOlm tele)
Year: 2005 = Platform: GameCube

A limited release
aatcyclarce Cam ile 9
western Fire Emblem
released for ahome
console now fetches
high prices online. 2
It’s worth taking Say
the hit, as it has one

GoldenE

= Year: 1997 = Platform: Nintendo 64

in multiplayer) but there’s no denying

1 It’s showing its age a little now (particularly
what a landmark title GoldenEye is. Its

of the best stories in the series, plenty of lovable
characters and satisfying combat mechanics.
Additionally, if you transfer your save to the Wii
sequel, Radiant Dawn, your characters in that game
will receive handy stat boosts.

Super Mario 3D World

Year: 2013 = Platform: Wii U

It’s rather astonishing that this excellent platformer
hasn't been re-released for the Switch. As you’d
expect from a 3D Mario game, Super Mario 3D
World is filled with clever flourishes, neat gameplay
mechanics that never outstay their welcome

and plenty of new suits and items to try out. It

also supports up to four players for some fun
multiplayer shenanigans.

multiplayer (which ir ele Teller fiat

IN THE HN

IE HNOW

» PUBLISHER: NINTENDO
» DEVELOPER: NINTENDO

» RELEASED: 1981
» Platform: ARCADE, VARIOUS

» GENRE: PLATFORMER

30 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

ra i pn

COIN-OP CAPERS: DONKEY KONG

Donkey Kong

Martyn Carroll takes a definitive look back at
Nintendo's timeless classic and unravels its
brilliance by speaking to the very people who

know the coin-op intimately

puke) pelt d Sait)

NINTENDO ERICA INC

hen it comes to
iconic videogames,
Donkey Kong is the
daddy. Created by
gaming legend Shigeru
Miyamoto and released to huge
success in 1981, it's one of the most
celebrated and treasured games in
history. It goes without saying that
it has single-handedly defined the
platform genre and introduced us to
not one but two of the most popular
videogame characters ever — the
titular gorilla and his tormentor Mario.
Such is its impact that some enduring
videogame myths have built up around
its creation. Was the game supposed
to be called ‘Monkey Kong’ but the
name got misinterpreted somewhere
along the way? Probably not. Was the
game originally designed as a vehicle
for Popeye and Brutus? Apparently so.
Was the game responsible for saving an
ailing Nintendo of America from certain
bankruptcy, and providing the Japanese
parent with the funding and impetus
to develop the Famicom and therefore
change the course of gaming forever?
Quite possibly.

The facts are that in July 1981
Nintendo produced Donkey Kong
as an upgrade kit for Radar Scope,
its Galaxian-inspired game released
the previous year that, despite initial
success, had largely flopped in the
US. The majority of US-based Radar
Scope machines were converted,
clearly indicating that the space shooter
hadn't been pulling in as many quarters
as hoped. The new game certainly
did the trick, as Nintendo quickly went
from manufacturing conversion kits
to building dedicated cabs to meet
the massive demand. This led to two
cosmetic ‘flavours’ of Donkey Kong: the
new, widely produced blue-coloured
cabs with added side art, and the
rarer converted Radar Scope cabs that
retained their original red paintwork.

A year on from its initial release,
Donkey Kong had reportedly earned
Nintendo $180 million. This success led
to a clamour of console and computer
manufacturers looking to license the
coin-op. Once more, the whole episode
is now swamped in folklore, with deals
done that supposedly led to lots
of hand-wringing and toy-throwing.

903700

007650

It's even commonly suggested that
Donkey Kong played a part in
scuppering negotiations that would
see Atari release the Famicom in the
US. All that aside, the deals resulted
in Coleco receiving the home console
rights and Atari settling for the home
computer rights.

Coleco immediately played an ace by
bundling the game with its ColecoVision
console, causing hardware sales to
skyrocket. It also put the game out on
the Intellivision and Atari 2600 consoles.
Such was the popularity of the game
that even the scaled-down 2600
version shifted more than 4 million
units, generating a massive $100 million
in sales. Atari itself released the game
on its 400/800 computers and ported it
to several others, including the VIC-20,
C64, TI-99/4A and Apple II. Inevitably,
unlicensed clones with cheeky titles
like Donkey King and Killer Gorilla
flooded many computer platforms in
the early Eighties. Nintendo, meanwhile,
capitalised on the success of the
original with a couple of arcade sequels
and a range of Game & Watch handheld
titles. Mario would, of course, go on to
dominate Nintendo's character roster for
the next decade, but our anthropoidal
friend swung back into contention in the
mid-Nineties with the release of a new
Donkey Kong title on the Game Boy,
and the first of Rare’s Donkey Kong
Country games for the SNES.

The original game may be
approaching its 30th anniversary,
but it is most certainly far from
being forgotten. In recent years it
has even been thrust back into the
public consciousness thanks to the
high-profile battles over the Donkey
Kong high score world record. Die-
hard players Billy Mitchell and Steve
Wiebe have also been involved in a
long-running battle to claim the world
record, with their efforts to one-up
each other's achievements memorably
chronicled in the 2007 documentary
The King Of Kong. Earlier this year, a
brand new competitor named Hank
Chien appeared and entered the fray,
so now it's a three-way fight for the
most coveted title in competitive
videogaming. In October 2015, Robbie
Lakeman claimed the coveted title with
a colossal score of 1,177,200 — but it will
have probably changed hands again by
the time you read this!

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 31

the &€xpert

» NAME: HANK CHIEN

» AGE: 36

» DATE OF BIRTH:
4 AUGUST 1974

» HOMETOWN:
NEWYORK, USA

» OCCUPATION:
PLASTIC SURGEON

1 he

Bloomin’ Barrels

Jump them, smash them or
simply avoid them. Just don’t get
flattened by them.

32 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

i Is it true that you only started
playing Donkey Kong after seeing
the King Of Kong documentary?
| think | may have played one game
of Donkey Kong prior to watching The
King Of Kong, but yes, it's pretty much
true | had never played the game. After
watching the documentary, | decided
to play just for fun. | had no idea where
| could find a Donkey Kong machine,
but | was aware of MAME. | improved
very rapidly on MAME and after three
months | reached the kill screen. At
that point, | decided to find a public
machine and thanks to the internet |
found one pretty quickly at Barcade
in Brooklyn. | then searched eBay and
Craigslist for my own machine and after
a few months | was able to find one in
reasonable shape for a reasonable price.

| At what point did you realise that
you had a chance at the crown?
My initial intention was not to break
the world record. | really was
just playing for fun. In fact,
| was going to try to break
a million and then sell my
machine. | wasn't even
sure | could even break a
million until | actually did it.
It was 13 September 2009
and | had a business trip that
day and had a flight to catch in
two hours. My high score at the time
was around 940,000. | started to play a
game in those two hours and | scored
1,037,700 and barely caught my flight.
My first million point game was only
12,500 points shy of the world record.
At that point | realised | had a shot and
| started playing seriously and recording
my attempts.

Loopy Lifts

Z
cm

at the bottom.

aT Cd
The flames are a pain and

they feature on most screens.
Avoid them wherever possible.

126100
bee Ss

HOW HIGH CAN YOU GET

» Upon passing the fifth level, the game loops until level 22,
where a bug prevents further play.

@ Can you describe the events that
led to you scoring 1,061,700 points
on 26 February 2010?

After my first million point game, |
actually did not play much because |
was discouraged by the Twin Galaxies
rules for scores over a million. Basically
at that time it had to be done live in front
of a referee. The rule was changed in
November 2009, but with the holidays
and work, Donkey Kong took a back
seat. However, in early February | put
my mind to it. In the coming weeks, |
had several very close games, so | knew
| could do it. Then came 26 February, a
Friday. Ordinarily | would have been at
work, but a huge snowstorm covered
the city and my car was buried in snow
so | was stuck at home with nothing to
do but play Donkey Kong. In the evening
| had a really good start and didn't die
until late in the game. The rest is history.

Be careful jumping to and
from the lifts, and be sure not to
get yourself caught up in the gears

Jumping Jacks

» Is it better to take the low or high route? Expert players
always opt for the latter.

@ Your achievement generated lots
of press once Twin Galaxies verified
it. It must have been a pretty crazy
few weeks for you...

After | broke the world record it was
really crazy. People were calling my
office, my home, my parents’ home,
email, Facebook, you name it. | was
flooded, and that’s on top of my
ordinary busy life. It was fun to get all
that attention, but only for about a day!

Did Billy Mitchell or Steve Wiebe
offer their congratulations?
Billy Mitchell acknowledged my
achievement, but | have not spoken to
him directly. | would like to meet him
at some point. Steve Wiebe called and
emailed to congratulate me personally.

Billy reclaimed the high score in
July this year, then Steve grabbed

Things to look out for when

attempting to topple the silly gorilla

ot AVA}

Don’t end up with pie on your
face. Time your jumps and beware
of the conveyor changing direction.

You need to position yourself
carefully to dodge these fast-moving
hazards. Tricky in later levels.

» Hank pictured here practising on his very own Donkey
Kong cab in his Manhattan apartment.

it once again in September. It looks
like neither of these guys plan to
give it up any time soon. Are you
planning to try to take it back?

Steve is a great player and he has

been working hard to reclaim the world
record, so he deserves the top spot.
Congratulations to him! | do plan on
taking it back, but my main goal is to
maximise the game to the best of my
ability, whether it is a world record or
not. In my original world record game, |
held back a lot and made some careless
mistakes, so | know | can do a lot better.
To score high you have to take a lot of
risks and be really aggressive.

@ What kind of high score do you
think is possible, with a perfect run?
The current world record is nowhere
near the maximum. The thing about
Donkey Kong is that there are so many
variables and so many ways to play

the game, it's hard to say exactly what
the maximum score is. | think that the
achievable maximum score is close to
1.2 million, but it would require a lot of
skill and luck to pull it off. The theoretical
maximum is a lot higher — maybe 1.5
million. A great thing about the game

is that the world record will always be
beatable. This saga isn’t over yet.

@ There's been talk of The King Of
Kong becoming a dramatised movie.
If this happened and you were
featured in the film, who would you
like to play you?

| don’t think there are any Hollywood
actors good looking enough to play me,
but if | had to choose, maybe Brad Pitt
or Johnny Depp could do it! ¥&€

Expert strategies
from the newest
challenger to the
Donkey Kong
world record

4 @ TOP TIP
« ) For beginners, just clear
the boards as fast as you
can. On the barrel board always keep
an eye on the barrels above you and
prepare for the worst case scenario

There really aren't many secrets; it's
just a matter of practice

@ BONUS PLAY

2 When playing for a high
a] score, it’s a combination
of knowing when to hang around and
accumulate points and when to finish
the stage to claim the bonus. It is not
always beneficial to stay around on
a board as the bonus timer ticks down
very fast, particularly in the later levels.
You have to know when you can

‘beat the clock’ and when you just
have to call it quits

3 @ HAMMER TIME

Ws Whether to grab the
hammer or not is a

complicated question. On the barrel
board the top hammer is safe, but
the bottom hammer is dangerous. |
grab it when I'm playing for points
but when I'm playing for survival I'll
usually skip it. On the conveyers and
rivets, that’s even more complicated. |

could probably write a short book on it

4 @ RIVET ROUTE

4 ) There are two patterns
on the rivets that are

commonly used, yet there is no
consensus even among the top
players as to which is better for
survival or for points. In one pattern
you clear all the rivets on the left and
then try to grab the top hammer. In
the other, you clear all of the rivets
except the one on the level with
the bottom hammer, then grab the
bottom hammer and run across.
Even those two patterns are not
foolproof and you have to know what
to do when it falls apart.

Fh ins a

COIN-OP CAPERS: DONKEY KONG

The SequWeLsS

There are dozens of Donkey Kong
spin-offs, but only three true sequels

Peer ieee Donkey Kong Jr
ry é Oe Released: 1982
: [exer]

The success of
Donkey Kong meant that the
sequel arrived faster than a
tossed barrel on a greased
girder. But what's this?
There's not a single barrel
to be seen. Donkey Kong
has been caged by Mario
and the moustachioed one
has unleashed all manner of
jungle critters in an attempt
to stop DK’s plucky son from
© rescuing his dad. Donkey

Kong Jris a platform game,
but a lot of time is spent traversing vines and chains, which
can be cumbersome. It doesn’t help, either, that Junior is
rubbish at jumping, and the result is a slightly awkward
sequel that, while utterly charming, lacks the smoothness
and grace of the original.

Donkey Kong 3
Released: 1983
DK Jr played a little on the

sluggish side, but you certainly couldn’t
level that at this fast-paced shooter that’s
far removed from the platforming roots
of the series. The title character is once
again the cranky nemesis, but Mario

by now had better things to do, leaving
goofy urchin Stanley to step in and deal
with DK. The frantic action takes place
over three stages set in a greenhouse,
and in each one Stanley must continually blast the pesky
primate with his insect spray gun, forcing him up into the
rafters where stinging bees ultimately await him. It works
brilliantly as an arcade game, in that you offer up a credit
and get your five minutes of fun, but the game lacks variety
and doesn’t warrant repeated plays, thereby denying it the
lasting appeal of its forebears.

Donkey Kong (GB)
Released: 1994
When it comes to resurrecting

and reinventing a franchise, nobody
does it better than Nintendo. This
game, launched alongside the Super
Game Boy in 1994, is a perfect
example. It begins as a nifty homage
to the original coin-op, with the
arcade’s four screens authentically reproduced with a few
little extras thrown in, but instead of the game looping back
to the beginning once DK hits the deck, it instead presents
the player with a squillion extra screens to negotiate. In the
majority of these, Mario must find an oversized key and
carefully carry it to the locked door, which leads to the next
level. Part-puzzler, part-platformer, this is an excellent update
that deservedly spawned its own spin-off series in the Mario
vs Donkey Kong games on the GBA and DS.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 33

The machine

Chris, a 39-year-old IT support worker from Gresham,
Oregon, had hankered after his own Donkey Kong cab
ever since first playing the game in his local bar and grill
aged 11. He ran an ad on Craigslist looking for a red
DK cab and a lady not too far away answered his call.
It transpired that she’d acquired it from a local vendor
who originally purchased it new as a Radar Scope
machine. Unfortunately, it needed a lot of work.
“lt was one step away from a landfill,”
Chris tells us. “The bezel was so scratched
| could barely make out the monitor. The
coin door was rusted and the coin mechs
were jammed up. To make matters worse,
someone had attempted to cut a hole in
one of the sides. | wanted a red DK really
badly but man, this thing was a mess.”
Undeterred, Chris transported the cab
home and began the process of bringing it
back to its brilliant best. “Donkey Kong was and
always will be a passion for me,” he says, “and
it’s just as much fun now as it was back then.”

To restore my Donkey Kong, | began by lightly sanding
down the entire cabinet to give the primer something
to adhere to. All of the imperfections including the
busted edge and the place where someone had
attempted to cut a hole were reconstructed with
Bondo putty and sanded flat. The primer was shot
with a spray gun. | couldn't get the oil paint to shoot
correctly so it was applied using a foam roller. The
paint colour was matched by removing a red chip from
underneath the coin door where it hadn't seen daylight
since 1981.

The original board had developed

bad RAM somewhere. Since | don’t
have the expertise to do this kind of a
board repair, | sent it to Dick Millikan
of Auburn, Washington, who is known
for board repairs. Dick sent me a
working board. Being a huge Donkey
Kong fan, it was mandatory that the
Brasington kit was installed. This is an
add-on kit that enables the game to
save high scores. It's also necessary if
you want to install the D2K: Jumpman
Returns hack. D2K is amazing!

ane ca 4

34 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

The monitor is the original Sanyo i
20EZ that has been recapped — this i
is where all the capacitors on the}
monitor PCB are replaced. It is
currently using the original flyback.

™ CONTROL PANEL |

The control panel has been replaced
with a reproduction. Interestingly
enough, the original panel was using
the Radar Scope red button for jump,
which | chose to re-use. The P1 and
P2 buttons are the original Nintendo
dark blue. The new instruction cards
are also reproduction, as well as the
dust cover.

The control
panel itself

is in good

COIN-OP CAPERS: DONKEY KONG

In the mid-Seventies,
while in college
studying electrical
engineering, | was
hired by a small
engineering consulting
company. Among
other projects, |
developed and
patented a handheld
billiards game called
Bank Shot, based on
a 4-bit microprocessor and an array of 72 LEDs.
When the Atari 2600 came out the handheld games
started to suffer at the expense of the newest,
greatest thing — videogames. In response, | bought
an Atari machine, opened it up and reverse-
engineered it so that we could compete in that
space. I've been developing games ever since.

At the time, around 1981/1982, there
weren't a whole lot of independent

It was a three to four month schedule, which was
about half the time that should have been allotted.
The deadline was immovable, with the ROM
cartridge needing to go into manufacturing in time
for a holiday shipment. | worked without sleep for
the final 72 hours to deliver it on time. It took me a
month to physically recover from the ordeal.

There were two factors that prevented me from
including the other two screens. The cartridge was
4KB in size, and the beta version of the game, after
three months of labour and two screens complete,
came in at around 6KB. | was over by 2KB. Bigger
cartridges were available, but Coleco made the
financial decision not to go for an 8KB cartridge,
despite my recommendation and pleading. So,
rather than having an extra 2KB to play with and
add more screens, | had to spend the last month
crunching out 2KB just to make the two screens

fit in a 4KB cartridge. The second

factor was the schedule. There

was no time left. The other screens

shape. It is
not dented,
warped, or
Swiss-
cheesed. The
control panel
overlay is in

decent condition, though it has a

hole worn in it at the front. | have

a new overlay for it that | found on

videogame developers who knew
how to program the Atari 2600.

| had the knowledge as | had
reverse-engineered the platform
the previous year. My brother Steve
owned an engineering company
and he had a relationship with an
executive at Coleco — | believe his
name was Eric Bromley. Steve got

would have been impossible on the
allowed schedule.

| got a very, very tiny slice. Enough
to make it worthwhile, but |

eBay about a year ago. | will install

it when | restore the machine
cosmetically. Regarding the

joysticks, which are Seimitsu/SNK

LS-30s, one of them was new

when | got the machine, while the

other has moderate wear.

a COIN MECH
The coin
mechanisms
are original.
| decided
to paint the

coin door and :

leave the coin entry wear marks
for authenticity's sake.

the Donkey Kong contract with Coleco
and subcontracted the project to me. It’s all
about relationships.

No, nothing. My only source was the actual arcade
game. | had direct access to a machine, which
Coleco provided, but | didn’t get to keep it!

| wanted the 2600 version to look just like the
arcade game, but there was a technical problem.
The Atari hardware did not have enough memory
to display a full bitmap background — the
background memory only held enough bits to
cover half the screen, so the video display driver
would display either a repeating pattern or a
reflecting pattern. With this limitation you could
not display the slanted ramps that were such an
important aspect of the look of the game. This
frustrated me until | came up with a technical
solution to overcome the limitation, allowing for
slanted ramps. It required a rewrite of much of the
code but | think it was worth it.

certainly didn’t get rich off it.

Not to pat myself on the back, but | still love the
game. | thought it turned out pretty well. From

my perspective | focused on the quality of the
game experience that was in the cartridge rather

i tar-TaM clan Ualeiare maar -Mi-(el mar) mated eal (NZRU G)
missing. | really wanted to get the iconic first level,
with Mario jumping over barrels, to feel as close to
the arcade game as possible, and I’m comfortable
with how that turned out.

The importance of the iPhone cannot be
overstated. The single most important thing it

has done is change the buying habits of the
videogame consumer. Two years ago my eight-
year-old son would ask me for a $30 cartridge for
his Nintendo DS. Today he asks me if it’s okay to
download a $0.99 iPhone game, and he’s equally
satisfied with the experience. Apple has taught the
consumer that good games can be had for under
$2 and the games industry will never be the same.
The genie is out of the box and the industry will
never get it back in.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 35

The conversions

HIGH SCORE

ARE]
te be aL A

(DESL MVE SIOM)
That Stuart Campbell
awarded it the prestigious
accolade of best 8-bit
arcade conversion of all
time back in issue 76
should be a big indicator
of how good this version
plays. Featuring big,

bright colourful visuals,
faithful gameplay, and

all four stages, it’s a
nigh-on perfect conversion
for Lord Sugar’s unfairly
mocked wonder

machine, which is

why we're awarding

it best conversion.

oO 7600

This is a poor conversion,
even by Atari 2600
standards. It's missing
two stages (Cement
Factory and Spring), DK
looks like a deranged
gingerbread man, the
barrels look like cookies,
and the behaviour of the
enemy flame sprites

— they simply yo-yo from
one end of the screen
to the other — is easy to
circumvent. The controls
aren't great either.

UlTt

Poor graphics aside,

36 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

the intensity at which
Kong lobs his barrels is
relentless, and coupled
with Mario's weedy jump
is a perfect recipe for
irritation. In this version
it also takes Mario an
unnecessarily long time to
climb ladders — although
this might have something
to do with the giant arse
that Sentient Software
has retrofitted him with,
only visible when he's
climbing ladders.

i. C64 (Atarisoft)
This superb version
by Douglas D Dragin

is another great port.
Released in 1983, it's the
first official port to include
all the stages — impressive
considering it was one

of the earliest titles for
the C64, and subsequent
ports on machines
boasting far more tech
managed just three. With
great presentation, and
the option to tweak the
difficulty of the game,
this is generally the more
popular of the two C64
versions that saw release.

As well as the great

Atarisoft offering, C64
owners received this
equally impressive one by
Arcana, which also did the
CPC version. Featuring all
four stages — although this
time it's worth noting that
they follow the original
Japanese level order
— great sounds, smooth
gameplay and all the
cut-scenes, it’s another
great conversion.

NIEC

As you would expect
being on the NES, and
from Nintendo, this is a
great conversion. The

visuals look authentic,
and the gameplay and
controls are solid. It's
missing the Cement
Factory stage and the
sounds and music differ
from the arcade version.
This is the most popular of
all the home conversions,
which is why the cart
stayed in production for a
staggering five years.

7. Avole ||

7. Apple Ii
Despite no Cement
Factory, this conversion
still offers an authentic
game of DK, delivering
some of the more trivial

——— I eee ee

COIN-OP CAPERS: DONKEY KONG

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|= a =|
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miu Taletelataley

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elements of its arcade
parent — such as the ‘how
high can you get’ intro
screen and the inclusion of
Pauline’s girly possessions
—at the price of good
graphics and sounds. It's
the nippiest conversion

of the game out there,
and one of a handful to
allow players to tweak

the difficulty.

. ColecoVision
Once again no Cement
Factory stage, but
nonetheless a decent
effort that looks and
plays well. Unfortunately

its controls let it down,
though this has more to
do with the inaccurate
nature of the console’s
disc-stick controller than
anything else. Coleco
also released a version
for its Coleco Adam
computer. It doesn’t look
as good as the console
port, but it does include all
four stages.

D9. VIC-20

The graphics are below
par, and the game isn’t
very smooth, but it’s not
all bad news: the game
sounds fantastic, and,

ST a

amazingly, features all four
stages, which is really
quite unbelievable. This is
as good a job as Atarisoft
could be expected to
muster up on the modest
tech. Taking this into
account, this is another
decent conversion of DK.

Biggest surprise of the
night, though, goes to this
fantastic conversion for
the TI-99/4A. While the
visuals look a little washed
out, and the sound effects
are painful, the sprites do
look nicely detailed and

Selon a an gg ag

cara

the game is the complete
package featuring all four
levels from the arcade
game in the US order.
The gameplay is nice

and smooth too. A

great conversion.

. Atari 800
Without doubt the best
version to be found
on an Atari machine,
and was another of a
disproportionate number
to include all four
stages. There are slight
differences to the arcade
original that only astute
Donkey Kong fans will

pick up on, but most will
see this as a good-looking
and complete port that
certainly puts the dismal
2600 effort to shame.

Unsurprisingly, the MSX
conversion, which was
also by Sentient Software,
suffers from the same
issues that plague its
similar Spectrum port

— namely it doesn't look
great and Donkey Kong
seems to be working
himself into an early grave
at the top of the screen.
This is probably the worst

ee dee LL

of all the conversions
published by Ocean.

Mario looks like Q*bert

in dungarees, Donkey
Kong like Swamp Thing,
and Pauline like an orange
dinosaur. It only features
two stages and it controls
like a dead body. It’s
rumoured that this version,
developed by Coleco, was
so bad that, upon seeing
it, Mattel thought the
company was trying to
sabotage its machine. We
can believe it.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 37

GAME CHANGERS

SUPER MARIO BROS

SPRHOSHSHSHHSHHSHSHSHHSHSSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHHHSHSHSHSHSHSHHSHHSHHSHSHSHSSHHSHHSHHSHSSHHSHHSHHSHESHSSHHOSHEHSHSHHEHHOSHHOHEOEEHEOEEEEEE

r RELEASED: 1985 PUBLISHER: NINTENDO DEVELOPER: NINTENDO R&D4 SYSTEM: NES/FAMICOM

= The sequel to Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros popularised the

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Super Mario Bros eventually became synonymous pedestal atop the platforming throne. Few have come close, none
with the NES - establishing itself as a killer app for have succeeded, and the superiority of Super Mario Bros comes
the Eighties console. The platformer was a spiritual down to one aspect: its mechanics.
successor to Mario Bros — a game that attracted a fair share of Oddly, in a world of moustachioed plumbers, lizard-dragons and
attention in its own right — but in adding the Super prefix (a trope Shy Guys, Super Mario Bros is defined by its realistic mechanics.
that would come to define Nintendo sequels and spin-offs), the For an 8-bit game, the momentum and subtlety behind Mario and
developer managed to create a game that would come to define the Luigi’s movements was incredibly deft, operating on a system that
platform genre outright. you could understand from the first time you picked up the pad,
The game is not only a classic — generating a buzz on its Japanese —_ yet would probably never master. The physics were analogous to
and Western releases through, mostly, the rare gift of positive real life; if you wanted to attempt a large jump, you'd have to get a
word of mouth — but it also stands up to the test of time. The game running start. Conversely, if you started Mario off on a run (which
remains a relevant and valid example of platforming done well; Super | was wonderfully animated with his stodgy little hands pumping up
We Mario Bros popularised the side-scrolling platformer, and the genre and down at his sides), you'd have to give him a margin of space to

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power-ups — hidden in boxes that could be completely missed, if you = composer Koji comfort zone and throwing you into a bonus round of whacked-out
weren't attentive enough — were sparse enough to keep the game : Lele TT Ru weirdness. Nintendo's game is one that really rewards exploration
challenging, but occurred often enough to always be fun, always : tempo of the six and its tight design still holds up brilliantly today. It was all part of the
worth getting. The game’s level of challenge was perfectly attuned, Pg TUE Tol formula that would come to define Mario and his erstwhile franchise,
suitable for all ages and never too easy or too hard for any party to Pe and it was all operating at 100 per cent efficiency from the start.

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claustrophobic underground sections, too.

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mix at any time, plopping you back on a lower level and interrupting
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GAME

THE BEST

HACKS

The great thing about games as simply constructed as Super Mario
Bros is that they are easier to reverse engineer than their modern-
day counterparts. This leads to some great custom games seeping
into the public domain — Super Mario Bros is famous for having a
vast array of hacked versions, so we compiled our favourites for
your reading pleasure

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A minefield of invisible blocks and obstacles impede your progress through every A hack that adds new maps, new graphics, new enemies and new power-ups
single level of this fiendish re-creation of Super Mario Bros. We played a few levels to the game, Extra Mario Bros sometimes doesn't hit the Mario template one-for-
of it, and will happily say it’s harder than Dark Souls. lf you don't believe us, take the one, but it’s worth playing through just to get to the final boss battle. It’s quite a
challenge yourself - you'll soon understand why we said it. stretch from what you'll be used to seeing in Mario games, but it’s worth a play.

a --"F-
USE SR SESE SESE SESE GCSES RSE a tata TSE tSES MSR SESE GESTS ESE SESE SESE Sranence

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SUPER
MUSHROOM o

FRESENT FOR GARUNA.

SUPER MUSHROOM

@ Replacing Mario with Toad, Super Mushroom sees power-ups replaced with
enemies, new sound effects added for jumping and some reworked graphics and
textures. The game is apparently at a'99.9%’ difficulty level and is considered one
of the hardest SMB hacks made.

THE NEW STRANGE MARIO BROS

@ Intentionally glitchy and oddly designed levels are the trademark of The

New Strange Mario Bros, a game that gets harder as it goes on. Infamous for
incorporating new graphics that messed around with how the physics of the games
worked, The New Strange Mario Bros really was the experience it promised.

AUNT re IU

LUIGI’S FIRST QUEST: THE SEARCH FOR MARIO

@ Roles have been reversed, and it’s Luigi's time to shine in this interesting
hack that places the lankier, greener brother in the shoes of his stodgy younger
brother. The hack includes a slew of new levels that take advantage of Luigi’s
higher jumping prowess.

= a

SUPREME ICE BROS

@ A hack that sees the fire power-up of Mario's replaced with an ice-based
attack, Supreme Ice Bros also replaces Goombas with ninjas (who receive a speed
boost), sees Bowser become the devil, hidden paths in pre-existing levels and
completely remade music. It’s stupidly hard, too.

HELLO KITTY IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM

@ This bizarre hack takes the sprites from the Japanese NES game Hello Kitty
World and uses them to replace the eponymous Bros of the original title. Even

coming with its own story, the hack is the result of a lot of effort, and actually a
surprisingly good game.

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ttt

JOE & MOE PIZZA DELIVERY

@ Probably riffing on the inherent stereotype-bashing inherent to Mario, Joe &
Moe replaces the majority of the graphics in Super Mario Bros and replaces them
with the creator’s own take on the Mushroom Kingdom. The levels have been
redesigned, too, but not to a particularly high standard.

As with other Nintendo games,
it’s a piece of people’s childhoods.
Anyone who grew up owning a

NES remembers it fondly

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Starring a smarmy dog and scores of hapless flying wildfowl,
Duck Hunt was the game that introduced many to the joys of
the NES Zapper lightgun. Mike Bevan looks back at the history
and enduring appeal of Nintendo's virtual hunting trip

Cae eee Meats MW Mme ecm il
Hunt, for one simple reason - it was paired on a pack-in
cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System along
with one of the most popular and groundbreaking console
games of all time, Super Mario Bros. But while Shigeru
Miyamoto’s platform classic was undoubtedly the more attention-
grabbing title of the compilation, Duck Hunt retains the endearing
nostalgia of childhood, a cartoon shooting gallery with a sniggering
canine companion and the hapless quacks of animated flapping
ducks brought down by the simple act of pulling a plastic trigger. The

grinning face of Duck Hunt's lovable dog, fresh from rooting around in
bushes for nesting gun-fodder, has become an ironic and humorous
hallmark for videogaming disappointment after missing your quarry
in Nintendo’s lightgun shooter. And 30 years on, he’s set to make a
comeback in the latest instalment of the Super Smash Bros fighting

game franchise with a feathered friend in tow. It seems all these years
later, the ducks are striking back.

Although most people may know Duck Hunt from the Super Mario
Bros compilation cart, it was in fact the debut pack-in title for the North
American NES launch in 1985, when it came bundled with Gyromite, a
platform game that worked with Nintendo’s Johnny Five-alike robot
R.O.B. Coupled with its later appearance as a pack-in for various NES
bundles alongside Super Mario Bros and World Class Track Meet, that’s
an awful lot of copies of Duck Hunt out in the wild.

Produced by renowned Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi, creator of
the Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld systems, Duck Hunt was in
fact a digital reincarnation of his earlier electromechanical toy, a Kosenja
(‘light ray gun’) game of the same name. Released in 1976, the product
used a small mirror-projection device to project white duck silhouettes
onto a wall. The ducks would ‘fall’, accompanied by aloud quack, }>

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when the player hit them with the
shotgun-shaped lightgun provided. In fact,
despite the absence of a pastoral background
or your ubiquitous hunting dog, the basic
game mechanics were very similar to the
future NES version. However, the relatively
high retail price of 9,500 yen (around £75
adjusted for inflation) meant it was an
expensive novelty back in Seventies Japan.
The version of Duck Hunt that most of
us are familiar with was launched on the
Japanese Famicom console in April, 1984. It
was one of three initial titles for Nintendo’s
new Famicom Beam Gun peripheral, along

with the Wild West-themed Wild Gunman, and
the police-training style shooter Hogan’s Alley.
In North America a version of the game was
released for Nintendo's VS arcade system the
same year, prior to its home release in 1985.
Former Nintendo market-research analyst Jerry
Momoda remembers Vs Duck Hunt well. “VS
System games were an inexpensive two-chip
update [of existing Famicom titles] with new
cabinet graphics,” he says. “They were a
welcome alternative for operators who had
plenty of old cabinets. Operators could quickly
change games on location with little downtime,
and keep locations fresh with new titles. The VS

ULTIMATE GUIDE: DUCK HUNT

PERIPHERAL FAITHFULHOUNDS
VISION More videogames eon doggy heroes

Other games featuring notable or
peculiar hardware add-ons

GYROMITE Nes

w Aka Robot Gyro, it was designed for use
with the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.0.B.)

STAR PAWS
VARIOUS

SAM & MAX = =PARAPPATHE OKAMI
HITTHE ROAD RAPPER VARIOUS

for NES. It's a two-player puzzle platform @ Based on an @ Released in aid of PC DOS PLAYSTATION @ Okamiputs you into

game, the second player using R.0.B. abandoned concept the BBC's Comic Relief This was the first @ Wonderfully quirky and the paws of a snow-white

to move on-screen gates and pillars by that was dreamt up by charity, this game saw outing for Steve Purcell's unmistakably Japanese, —_ wolf called Amaterasu,

manipulating a pair of gyroscopic spinning tops. Manic Miner creator players controlling Ralph unlikely detectiveduo-a Parappaintroduced us tasked with exploring
Matthew Smith, Star the dog and protecting six-foot fedora-wearing to the peculiar tale of a a watercolour-like

MARIO CLASH virTuAL Boy Pawsresembledasort of his sleepwalking master. dogandahyperkinetic funkypaper-thincanine, medieval Japan. You'll

mw Amazingly, there were no proper Mario Road Runnerin space. As Ralph had to neutralise ‘rabbity-thing’. It's an his sunflower girlfriend, | need to master the

games on Nintendo's failed console. What Captain Roger Pawstrong various hazards in his all-American road trip and a karate-practising game's innovative ‘brush

there was, however, was this fun effort ee it was your job to capture owner's path as he involving robot scientists, onion, among other stroke’ techniques

that has Mario flinging shells at enemies delicious but fiendishly careeredever-onwards, afrozenBigfootandthe things. Aprecursor tothe to solve puzzles and

on distant ledges while avoiding enemies wary Space Griffinsand — takingcarenotto wake —_ world’s biggest ball of many popular rhythm- strike down enemies,

and hazards found on his own platform. dispatch them to Earth. him up. It also featured twine, and formed the based games that while colouring in the
The C64 version featured small cameos from basis for TelltaleGames’ followed, it also spawned _ beautifully dreamlike

YOSHI'S SAFARI snes a great soundtrack by comedians Lenny Henry modernepisodicseries | aguitar-focusedsequel | gameworld resembling a

@ One of the few fun times to be had with composer Rob Hubbard. — and Harry Enfield. of adventures. UmJammer Lammy. children’s drawing book.

Nintendo's clunky Super Scope lightgun,

it's an odd hybrid that sees you trundling

along a highway blasting Bowsers

minions, jumping obstacles and fighting
ridiculous-looking bosses.

RESIDENT EVIL 4 various

@ For its survival-horror masterpiece,
Capcom released a bloody-looking
chainsaw-style controller. The PS2 version
even made little revving noises as you ran
around decapitating zombies. Sadly, the
shape of the controller was a bit awkward.

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OUT RUN 3D master system ‘ at ade Caw es
@ While Space Harrier deserves a ” 3
mention, we're actually going to go with
Out Run 3D. The animation is a little
choppy at time, but the impressive visuals

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for it. Highly recommended.

System and PlayChoice were very successful alternated between duck and skeet shooting
and Nintendo's last official coin-op games. Our rounds. And, as perhaps could be deduced
guns were imported from Japan. The first from the cabinet marquee, which depicted Duck
version was black in colour and looked like a .357 Hunt dog cowering from a hail of bullets, it was
Magnum, so much that it was too realistic for possible to shoot more than just the ducks. There
American street locations and could be mistaken was an added bonus round in which our canine
for a real gun. They were made of pliable rubber pal popped up among the feathered targets and
over a metal core, and as such didn’t last long in could be blasted by ‘mistake’, a misdemeanour
American arcades...” for which he'd rightfully scold you at the end of
While the arcade version of Duck Hunt was for the segment. To the future disappointment of
the most part very similar to the console release, many a NES Duck Hunt player that longed to zap
there were a couple of notable differences. The that annoying grin off the mickey-taking hound,
cabinet was set up with a couple of lightguns this little Easter Egg was unfortunately nowhere
with players taking turns to play, and the game to be seen in the console version. While 4

JERRY MOMODA TWEETY BIRDS

At Nintendo of America in the Eighties, Jerry helped to Ten more videogames starring various feathered friends

test and promote new arcade and console products

What’s your personal history with the console and
arcade versions of Duck Hunt?

| was hired by Nintendo in 1982, and was fortunate

to be the one to communicate with Japan on games
in development. No one wanted to touch the console
industry in America after the crash of 1983. The VS
[Arcade] System served as a bridge leading up to the
North American NES release in 1985. Both Duck Hunt
and Hogan's Alley were first released for the coin-op
VS System in 1984. The VS System was simply a coin-operated version of
the Japanese Famicom console.

Was the arcade version of Duck Hunt as popular as the home version?

It was designed to be a Famicom/NES title, from the simplicity of gameplay

and the graphics. Duck Hunt was bundled along with Super Mario Bros in = CU
some configurations of the NES console, so it reached way more players. It’s

a better fit for the console player base. Duck Hunt and Hogan’s Alley both Co
had instant but not long-lasting appeal in arcades.

And in the arcade version you could actually shoot that pesky dog?!

Everyone wanted to shoot [it] because it mocked players. And so it played a
an antagonist role as it taunted players by laughing at them. For obvious i
reasons, being able to shoot the dog was removed from the NES version.

This was designed to be good, clean, family fun — a Nintendo trademark. a wy @
In Hogan’s Alley, shooting people (though animated) probably affected

its marketability. bere

How important do you think the cartoon-like graphics were in =

drawing people in?
In the home market | think it had a lot of appeal. For the players it targeted,
cartoon-like graphics had a strong appeal. The warm, vibrant colours used

. in Duck Hunt gave it a whole different feel than games like Hogan's Alley.
Naturally, parents don’t mind as much if little Johnny is going cartoon duck
i hunting versus shooting at humans in a realistic war, zombie, crime or
I space game.

Why do you think Duck Hunt is still so fondly remembered today?
As with other Nintendo games, it’s a piece of people’s childhood. Anyone

I who grew up owning a NES remembers this game fondly. Being a pack-in,
i nearly everybody owned the game. It’s a conversation piece that people can a
. .
I share. The same way they talk about Super Mario Bros...
. 4
a
> Nintendo was happy enough to let as shoot oo second. The Zapper detected this change in
i at defensive poultry, discharging virtual slugs intensity of light along with whether you were

i at the family pet was it seems a step too far for ret * OOOOOPTS. near enough centred on the boxes to score a
domestic duck-hunters. 10 w hit on a duck. And that’s why when you played
For the Western release of the NES lightgun, st Duck Hunt you'd occasionally sense the odd

the famous Zapper, the Dirty Harry-style OUCH # flickering effect, although it wasn’t annoying
Japanese Beam Gun was remodelled as a SHOOT THE DUCKS, NOT ME # enough to spoil the fun. The way the Zapper
futuristic, and somewhat less realistic virtual worked also meant that pointing it at a light-
weapon. Inside the Zapper was a simple sensor aah PST TRC. SDE A obulb wouldn't do you any good if you wanted
which responded to changes in luminosity on : i ; ie ih : 4 to cheat, although sticking it right up near the
the screen. In Duck Hunt and other Nintendo ; t { f screen might have helped, if kind of defying
Zapper titles, pulling the trigger caused the Lapa as : — the point of the game. The timing issues of the
screen to black out and display white boxes ecu Rta . Zapper hardware unfortunately means that Duck
around the targets, just for a fraction of a : Pena UT OLS Le : : Hunt won't work on modern LCD TVs.

—

Duck Hunt comes with three different modes —
game A gives you three bullets per duck to shoot
at ten targets that rise consecutively from the
thicket, the trickier game B gives you the same
number of bullets to tackle two ducks flying up
at a time, while game C substitutes clay pigeons
for wildfowl. Game A also gives you an option
for a second player to control the flight path of
the ducks in a bid to put off player one, which
can lead to a few hearty chuckles. Each mode
continues at an increasing difficulty level until
players reach round 99, when the game resets to
a bugged round 0, featuring spectral ducks that
are impossible to hit, echoing Pac-Man’s famous

‘kill screen’. Another interesting fact about Duck
Hunt is that its character designer (and the artist
behind that famous doggy), Hiroji Kiyotake, went
on to create Samus Aran of Metroid fame.

And in the latest instalment of Super Smash
Bros, the snickering mutt is back on Nintendo’s
latest console, after being on the videogame

‘bench’ for 30 years. He comes complete with a
duck on his back, and special moves that pay
homage to other Zapper games including Wild
Gunman and Hogan’s Alley. You might not have
been able to hit him with your Zapper back in the
day on the NES, but now at least you might be
able to slap him about a little bit. 9

ULTIMATE GUIDE: DUCK HUNT

1
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b

,
: ,

Instant Expert

is the most

non-linear adventure in the series.
You can tackle the dungeons in
almost any order you like, and the
game can be finished without ever
collecting the sword.

was the

first NES title to sell over a
million copies and went on to
sell 6.5 million in total.

for Zelda's

third dungeon resembles a

Nazi swastika, it is actually the
much more innocuous manji, an
ancient religious symbol used
by Japanese Buddhists, which

is the reverse of the infamous
emblem and is common in
Eastern philosophy.

unusual hero in that,

in the first game and canonically
throughout the series, he is left-
handed. Perhaps by coincidence,
the word ‘links’ is German for ‘left.

and you can play a second quest
with different dungeon layouts and
item placements. If you want to
skip straight to it, enter your name
as ‘ZELDA at the start.

is named after
Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of novelist
Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

in the US

and Europe it was ported from
disk to cartridge and became the
first console game to include a
battery to store save data.

48 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Ashley Day argues that Nintendo's seminal

= ULTIMATE GUIDE:

i ij

adventure game isn't just an important piece of ¥

history but a game that’s still great to play today. *

Discover one of Nintendo's greatest adventures

ou really have to hand it
to Miyamoto and his band
at Nintendo. To make one
of the greatest and most
important videogames of
all time, in the shape of Super Mario
Bros, was one thing. But to repeat the
same trick just a year later, and in a
completely different style of genre, is
rather incredible.

In fact, there isn’t even a year
between Super Mario Bros and The
Legend Of Zelda. There was only
five months between the Japanese
release dates of each game, yet the
latter represents a giant stride from the
former in terms of game design. Where
Mario was brilliantly simple, placing
you at the start of a linear journey and
merely asking you to move a little
plumber to the right, Zelda offered a
world of possibility by comparison.

Starting off in the middle of the vast
land of Hyrule, it put you in control of
a left-handed elf-like boy named Link,
with three possible exits standing
before him, and then... did nothing.

No instructions, no dialogue, no hints.
Just the promise of adventure and an
invitation into the unknown. Which
way should you go? Well that was
entirely up to you, and that was the
entire point of the game. There was
an ultimate goal, of course — to
collect the eight scattered pieces of
the Triforce of Wisdom in order to
defeat the evil Ganon and rescue
the eponymous Princess Zelda — but
it was the open nature of how you
approached this task that really made
The Legend Of Zelda so compelling.
It's a well-known story that
Miyamoto’s inspiration for Zelda
came from his childhood memories
of exploring the Japanese countryside
without a map and the pleasure that
he got from discovering places he had
no previous knowledge of. The goal of
the Zelda project was to capture that
childlike fascination with the unknown,
the sense of wonder that the world can
provoke when everything around you is
so new and unusual. And that project
also happened to fortuitously coincide

with the development of the Famicom
Disk System, Nintendo's Famicom add-
on that side-stepped the rising cost of
ROM chips and allowed developers to
create much bigger games than before.

The Disk System's rewritable media
also allowed for game progress to be
permanently saved without the need for
cumbersome passwords, and this was
a crucial technological advantage that
allowed Nintendo to further distinguish
its console games from those of
the arcades. Coin-operated arcade
games were still the dominant form of
videogaming in 1986 and were focused
very much on short-term challenge,
cyclical and repetitive gameplay, and
the thrill of chasing a high score. But
Nintendo wanted its games to be
something different; something you
played over a long period of time,
returning to like a good book to enjoy
an ever-evolving experience; a journey,
rather than the same few seconds over
and over again.

This is very much how the modern
videogame can be described 25 years

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

Some of Zelda’s familiar characters make their debuts

Pixel Perfect

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» Gleeok » Leever » Bubble » Gohma » Old Man » Stalfos

» Vire » Shopkeeper » Moldorm » Patra » Moblin » Pols Voice

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» Ghini » Old Woman

» Gibdo » Goriya » Keese » Ganon » Magical Key » Wall Master
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» Power Bracelet » Lynel » Zelda » Dodonga » Flame » Armos

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 49

Critical
Reception

What the gaming

“The Legend
Of Zelda is
a massive
arcade
adventure
packed full
of dragons,
imprisoned
princesses,
traps and
pitfalls”

- COMPUTER & VIDEO GAMES, 1987

‘Twin Galaxies
Se High Scores

@ NAME: RODRIGO LOPES
@ TIME: 00:31:37

@ NAME: RODRIGO LOPES
@ TIME: 00:39:59

EXTREME CHALLENGE

(COMPLETE GAME WITHOUT SWORD,
re as et sl 9)

@ NAME: MARLON
D MORROW.
@ COMPLETION: 100%

50 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

bE ULTIMATE GUIDE:

> on, of course, but The Legend Of Zelda
was one of the first games to truly offer
that kind of deep, long-term experience.
And it did it very well indeed. So many
early videogames can be credited as
the first to do one thing or another, but
Zelda did it all, establishing the rules
of the modern adventure game and in
such style that, alongside its sequels,
it remains brilliantly playable a quarter
of a century later, while Nintendo's
competitors are still playing catch-up.

It's not just the tantalising nature

of Hyrule’s open world that makes
Zelda so appealing. It's the way Link’s
ever-increasing inventory and abilities
open up new routes through that
world, ensuring that it rewards progress
with a steady stream of surprises and
discoveries right up to the end. There's
the contrast between the freedom of
the overworld and the tightly focused
structure of the dungeons beneath
the ground. There's the way each
weapon Link acquires has more
than one obvious use, forcing you to
experiment and be creative with the
way you play. And, of course, there's
the wealth of secrets that permeate the
world, not just rewarding the player but
encouraging them to dig deeper, play
harder and uncover hidden treasures
that make you feel like the best player in
the world. It's a deeply personal feature
that makes you feel special for finding
those secrets and personalises the
experience, even though those secrets
are, in reality, accessible to everyone.

Power Ups

» More high explosives can never be a bad thing.

With 33 years under its belt, the
Zelda series has since gone from
strength to strength, and many people
have a favourite entry in the series that
isn't the first one. A Link To The Past,
Link's Awakening, Ocarina Of Time and
Majora's Mask could all legitimately
lay claim to the title of Greatest Zelda,
but there’s something pure about
that first game that sets it apart from
its successors. Right from Zelda //
onward, the series began to change.

It still retained the core features of an
overworld, a series of dungeons and
an expanding bag of tricks, but it also
lost something along the way. As
the series has become increasingly
preoccupied with telling a story, you

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could argue that it has also limited itself,
weighing its opening moments down
with unnecessary dialogue and lengthy
tutorials that actually distance you from
Link instead of doing the opposite.

The Legend Of Zelda's real brilliance
is that it has the confidence to just drop
you into its world and leaves you to
explore for yourself, experimenting with
its mysteries and discovering secrets
without any real hand-holding. Instead
of simply telling you a story, it allows
you to live the story; its events are
driven by your decisions and actions. It
feels unique, it rewards those who jump
in at the deep end to go see what they
can find, and it's a quality that the Zelda
series would do well to recapture. ¥

Some of The Legend Of Zelda's pick-ups have endured throughout the
series’ history, while it never quite happened for others...

Eis

»Bait »Bombs »Boomerang »Bow »Candle »Ladder___»Magic Book
This meat is The bomb can The boomerang Thebowisthe Thiscanbeused Thisitemallows An optional item
bought from be used to hurt has two distinct only thing that to light your you to cross that upgrades the
ashop and justaboutany uses. One violentto cankillGanon, — way, butit can small sections wand so that it can
used to feed enemy butcan damage enemies; atleastonce alsobeusedto _ of river to take shoot fireballs,
any Goriyas also be used the other practical, you've acquired —_ burn bushes, shortcuts and — making candles
that block to open secret as it can retrieve the silver sometimes is essential for redundant.
your path. entrances. distant objects. arrows forit. revealing secrets. some dungeons.
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»Magic » Potions »Raft »Rings » Shield » Swords »Whistle
__Wand _ Potions come Allows Link These, much The wooden There are Asingle-use
It's a wand! in two varieties: to get around like every other shield just three swords — item that is
What more do blue and red. the waterways magic item, repels ordinary | Wooden, White essential
we have to tell Blue restores of Hyrule. He can be found attacks. The and Magical - for beating
you? Ituses your some of your can embark or in two colours. magic shield, each one more Digdogger, the
magic energy to life while the red disembark the Eachincreases however, can powerful than boss of the
shoot beams. _replenishesitall. raftatanydock. —_Link’s strength. _ block fireballs. the last. fifth dungeon.

Signature
tune

The now-iconic
Zelda theme
slowly plays and
builds up speed
as a waterfall
pours down

the title screen.
Koji Kondo's
composition is yet
another classic,
leading to his
involvement in
every game in
the series up until
Ocarina Of Time.

Secret exit

Finding secrets is one of Zelda's greatest
pleasures, not to mention one of its inspirations,
and here's one of the earliest. A door without

a keyhole is opened by pushing a seemingly
ordinary block to the left.

Side story

Some dungeon screens switch perspective to a
side view, a trick that was adopted wholesale for
Zelda Il; The Adventure Of Link and would return
for some brief sequences in the Game Boy's
Link's Awakening.

Boss hog

The final showdown with Ganon reveals

him to be some kind of grotesque demon

pig, much more monstrous than the human
reinterpretation in Ocarina Of Time. Recent
games tend to give him a hideous second form.

Memorable Moments

We present the best bits of the
best NES game Nintendo ever made

Fairy godmother

Find an enclosed pool and a fairy will pop out
and rejuvenate Link's health with a swirl of
hearts. It's another feature that has cropped
up time and again through the series, with the
fairies’ abilities and applications expanding.

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Hard to swallow

The brilliant Dodongo boss is defeated by getting
him to eat and swallow a bomb, causing him
some nasty indigestion when it explodes in his
belly. A similar boss, King Dodongo, became an
iconic sequence in Ocarina Of Time.

Loud noises!

In the Japanese release of Zelda you can shout
into the Famicom microphone to hurt Pols Voice
enemies. But you can't in the NES release. So in
Japan it's a memorable moment. Over here it's
barely even a regular moment.

MASTER USING IT AND
YOU CAN HAVE THIS.

. -

a
!

Good advice

One of the few pieces of dialogue is also the
most memorable. Though you can play the
whole game without the sword, the old man’s
advice is right. You'll do much better with it, and
what's a Zelda game without a sword?

a Je yy |

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‘| _| Pe 1 Be
|_| _he_| ee | ba |
Pl la I, 2) ig

a
IIE fea Mal ITY

LLLLL

Triforce get!

Link finds his first piece of the Triforce and holds
it above his head in a way that has now become
an identifiable characteristic of the little elf boy.
he Triforces of Wisdom and Power appear in
the original, with Courage debuting in the next.

*
cs

Hidden stairs

Another great secret. Touch a statue and it will
come to life to attack you. Some statues stand
over stairways that lead to secret underground
rooms, tempting players to engage them in
combat in the hope of some reward.

GRUMBLE. GRUMBLE. . .

Feeding time

This Goriya isn’t having a moan, it's actually his
stomach rumbling. Feed him the meat and he'll
let you pass. The first time a Zelda enemy defies
expectations of simply being sword fodder and
not the last.

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

] VAC E eo urine, l
is fairly typical
| foradventure J
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TLivooce: Mya ites(s

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PEACE RETURNS TO HYRULE.

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ANOTHER GUEST WILL START
ate Mr to

PS ee

os Re-t- BOR oss)

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 51

“ ULTIMATE GUIDE:

The Versions

Of Zelda ek ene) | oe

There have been many more

versions of the original Legend dl I L L a ra |

Of Zelda than you probably e

think. Here’s every one and the -

differences between them a | id

Pa |
FAMICOM DISK re FE

SYSTEM (1986)

The first official release

of the game was titled

ae ages eee
NoHo ROEM ean UCR om
Famicom Disk System. This release used the
extra capabilities in the FDS to play sounds
not present in the NES cartridge version.
It also used the microphone built in to the
second controller
of the Famicom.
Leo tale Macon a Ie]
og Tea a Ul)
sound-sensitive Pols
Nella AR ola)
VEER laalal er] UV
impossible on the
SC laTeE gol atom

Le |
ZELDA NO DENSETSU: TEIKYOU z |
CHARUMERA (1986) Pr an |
|
Made to promote Myojo Foods’ a m | a
charumera noodles, this special ll
rae Me) mM ae lea lee aW Bees) Cin)
game is identified by a different label design and is (e) E
NINTENDO considered a rare Famicom collector's item, selling
ENTERTAINMENT for around £180 in Japanese retro stores. o~ —
, or .
SYSTEM (1987) =a =
As well as translating the _ once
game into English, the US
and European release of 7
eee he Poe eR ER UNA CRTs aoln eu aur
eae Me RUNES See
had been introduced to reduce the cost of Cn ela ule

Satellaview add-on between August 1995
and January 1997. As well as the advanced
graphics, BS Zelda No Densetsu also made
CMe) a Ul-Mar-lne | lee Bolel (ale Marla
to provide a live narration throughout the
broadcast quest.

De LEVEL —
eee ree ee
este Ld !

tec

| . eye eee
_
ee
(has
°

ROMs, the add-on never made it outside
Japan so Nintendo used a new type of chip.
The MMC1 (Memory Management Controller)
used bank-switching to make bigger games
possible and allowed
The Legend Of Zelda
to be released
worldwide. And boy
did Nintendo milk
it, releasing the
game on a special
gold cartridge and
evita RMN Tia
Tao aod ore Lec le] a1 2)
so that everyone
could see for
themselves. Classy.

52 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

GAMEBOY COLOR
REMAKE (2000, cancelled)

ANIMALCROSSING (2001)

Both the Nintendo 64 and GameCube editions
of Animal Crossing allowed players to enjoy a
Tal mela SoM lua ea ULL edna oe
The Legend Of Zelda was one of those games
although, weirdly, it was buried in the code and couldn't be
accessed without using cheat devices.

eae ene) cleo kes

Capcom negotiated a deal to
develop six new Zelda titles for the Game Boy
Color. Flagship worked on the remake for a
year but encountered a number of problems.
One was that the GBC’s resolution was too
different to that of the NES, meaning the game
{ had to be redrawn to fit the more narrow
Cth gidlgihlgld y Fyogt-1a Mal Rael R Ue Mee elle

to rebalance the game to make it less difficult.

Bau M EER) rl ace] 1-0 40100) i
as Flagship changed direction. At Miyamoto's beh Comment ° i
request, the studio started work on three Is_it_the missing Link? No.
interlinked games in the ‘Triforce’ series,
ENN esse) Cee tee esl)
Ode me lal Mel e168) ke) gee Na
idea proved too ambitious, however, and had
to be downgraded to the two games that were
eventually released: Oracle Of Ages and Oracle
(oor reo CM Ma MLC eKe tel mela
Mystical Seed Of Power, which was developed
off the back of the remake project, and you

ee re one}

THE LEGEND Trt Gin iece vay bse soe Tale)
OF ZELDA: Uae 0) Peele NA

COLLECTOR’S

EDITION (2003)

OW Tcelnatel olnr-10er- aa 00 ee ne
officially sold but given away to Nintendo
customers to promote the upcoming release
OM CNL
The disc includes
emulated versions
(psa melee tee)
meek ecd
and, of course, The
tol Tee) ec loh
which featured a

GWAC oR Ure of ed ”
corrected some ff iN
UM ca _/ =
Meret Ss y-
Mela eR \
as changing the Ue nt
name of Gannon cite t ca ae
om uvieg a
ene Tas 3D CLASSICS EDITION (2012)
When the 3DS was first shown off at E3
2010, one of the tech demos was a series of
‘Classic Games’ redrawn to take advantage
VIRTUAL CONSOLE(2006) of the 3D display, and one of the games in that showreel was
The Legend Of Zelda. Nintendo has since confirmed plans to sell
downloadable ‘3D Classics’ through the 3DS's eShop service,
Uae Cle PCL]
ee erutsh Aes is “see is starting with 3D Excitebike. The Legend Of Zelda hasn't officially
peer ee etree en been confirmed, but given that Ocarina Of Time has been remade

for the system, and that Shigeru Miyamoto has expressed
interest in giving similar treatment to A Link To The Past, it's easy
to assume that the original Zelda will appear in 3D pretty soon.

Uren WIR UIRO aeCelace)y
service. Sadly, the European version ran in
50Hz as part of Nintendo's ludicrous policy of
aaa Melia a ON RY elle lan leak lanl Ola
remembers, despite the fact that it used the
updated 2003 translation. It is now delisted.

"New Nintendo 3DS Games in Stores }

| Q Search J

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 53

aaa pushed
the NES hardware and
__ introduced a street-wise
~_ anthropomorphism that
ae rel eat] goM (e-l0(-l ant g ee
Rory Milne asks ex-Rare
Sat CALM sre tose] eLel aT
dds’ cl mae but a

Welw Nae) e (Olen)

Meee MON MUA MUI MO MC OURe ean)
PEM atl Ce ee Mi MUS et eLT¢ (LIS

one

NAME: Rash

STYLE:

Too cool for schoo!
TP MCun ly eae ae

eS MuCea Coal Uare|
moves to match his fast
Tare ama Maney AeA
eam ROTM lta
that helps to make him
the most agile.

‘SCER

Tae

NAME: Zitz

Brains over brawn

LPR eT meal
Elie) arAl eae)
tactical genius. He isn't
PR eoe- aco ee-y
tough as Pimple, but he’s
good with gadgets — think
James Bond with warts.

See ad

OY a esi =

a a

AA LS tT Ee
7s

Bull in a china shop

YD ea eg en oe
LT arene) ed aU Cooley
comes in handy when the
toads go into battle. Plus,
he's dating a Princess,

so he must be doing
something right.

afataiatateee A 4 AVS)

THE MAKING OF: BATTLETOADS

YY tata
=,

BATTLETOADS HISTOR

A quick overview of the series.

How many have you played?
BATTLETOADS BATTLETOADS & £4 BATTLETOADS
NES 1991 DOUBLE DRAGON: IN RAGNAROK’S
lt all began on the NES, THE ULTIMATE WORLD came Boy 1993

TEAM came Boy 1993
@ The Battletoads teamed
up with the characters that
inspired their creation for this
sequel, and while it spanned
several genres - much as its
predecessor had done - the
follow-up offered a few
more sustained beat-'em-

of course, but the brawling,
platforming and multi-genre
stages of the Battletoads’ first
demanding outing were ported
to various other consoles as
well as the Amiga.

BATTLETOADS
GAME BOY 1991

@ Although released just after
the NES original, Game Boy
Battletoads was pretty much
a completely different game.
A few NES stages survived
in adapted form, but the title
essentially went its own way.

BATTLETOADS IN
BATTLEMANIACS
SNES 1993

@ Although an original game,
Battlemaniacs was heavily
inspired by aspects of the first
Battletoads title. Its visuals,
plot and bosses were new,

" however, and its gameplay
was reworked to show off the
Super Nintendo hardware.

up sequences.

» An actual rat race, as Rash races a ratty
opponentto defuse a bomb.

P design and storyline. “We all worked
together on that team on a day-to-day basis,”
Kevin recalls, “but when it came to the game
design and concepts for levels, that was really
Tim and Mark. The game design was the
first thing that was tried and tested. Story
came afterwards. But once we had the first
few levels rolling along and playing nicely, we
continued to expand upon the story too. This
story then gave us other ideas to work into the
game, so we were soon developing the story
and the game simultaneously.”

The structure the team had put in place
allowed the Battletoads project to quickly gain
momentum, and a game-defining decision
was soon made on the title's difficulty.
“Mark had developed some editors

challenging. | would often hear Mark scream
when he was testing his own software if he
failed to get past his own levels, but | don’t
think he made it too hard. | guess we just
wanted value for money, and for the game
to last. We'd always try to vary the levels so
that you got a break from one particular style
or genre within the game. It made it more
refreshing to play over periods of time
and a lot more challenging in general.

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS

DONKEY KONG

for creating levels, and | think The story would often help to play a COUNTRY cricturep)
that Tim worked with him part in creating those subgenres and SYSTEM:

: tH oa VARIOUS
on putting those together, added to the variation. | remember YEAR: 1994
notes Kevin, “| remember watching Tim draw all of the sections = [7

: i : GOLDENEYE 007

that a lot of work went into of the Dark Queen’s tower, which SYSTEM: N64
making it seriously hard Mark cleverly animated to achieve YEAR: 1997
and precise. Some of it was the 3D effect. It worked really well, BANJO-KAZOOIE
crazy hard but that's the way and | learned a lot of tricks from Tim SYSTEM: N64
it was intended to be; extremely by watching him create those kinds of YEAR: 1998

56 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

@ Confusingly, this impressive
system exclusive delivered
exactly what might have

been expected of Game Boy
Battletoads — a stripped down
version of the NES original
with graphical concessions and
fewer levels and bosses.

BATTLETOADS
ARCADE 1994
§ Battletoads undeservedly
flopped at the arcades,
f, despite being a high-quality

¥ scrolling fighter that refined
the franchise's formula. The
coin-op is predictably the
best-looking Battletoads title
released and favours brawling
over other genres.

effects. | thought it looked amazing when |
saw it working.”

As Battletoads’ visuals, design and
gameplay evolved, another equally important
aspect of the game was addressed — one
that required an additional team member,
as Kevin recollects. “My friend Dave Wise
would come up with new music for each
level — as far as | remember, that was pretty
much the way it went for most games.

The levels didn't really come to life until

we had music and effects. | remember
always looking forward to Dave appearing
with a new disc that held the music to the
next level. Once that was incorporated

we'd sometimes switch the odd level

music around to a different level, because
sometimes tunes felt right on other levels.
But usually, Dave would go away after
looking at a level's graphics and a brief demo
of the gameplay, and then he'd write a piece
for the level. A lot of the sound effects were
created by Mark — using some software he
created to generate sounds.”

erious hours were being put in to
Battletoads and the team’s collective
efforts were reaching fruition, and
so work was started on the title's.
box art, but thought was also being given to
documenting the game’s visuals for future
reference and to help with the marketing
of the game. “| designed the box artwork,
but Tim airbrushed and produced it.” Kevin
reveals, “It was the second design. | did one
with the three toads on the front up-close,
but it went off to focus groups and it didn't
grab the kids’ attention, so we did a redesign.
| inked up a picture, and as Tim was so good

with the airbrush he did a fantastic job of

the one we ended up with. We also made

a style guide containing all of the characters
within the game, we wanted as much of the
concept illustrated on paper as possible. The
style guides were used for reference when
working with Nintendo. Putting them together
also allowed us to present visually to the
companies that became involved in marketing.
| was busy working on the style guide and
some of the other graphics for the game, but
| wouldn't say that | spent anywhere near as
many hours working on the game as Mark
did. As usual, he practically lived at Rare when
he worked on the game and got really into the
thick of it.”

Of course, before marketing Battletoads,
the task of in-house testing the finished
product remained, with the general feeling
at Rare being that they had produced a title
that was tough but fair. “I think Mark always
wanted it to be difficult,” Kevin admits, “It
was never impossible, but always just required
practice and of course some skill. The NES
controllers were bulletproof little pads that
were actually really responsive and could
take some serious shit, but the game was
tested on many controllers to make sure it
was possible to play right, and it was, but you
had to put in the practice. As a fighting game

)e, these icy spheres

enthusiast | preferred the brawling levels.
| could never complete it, but then there's
nothing worse than a game that is too easy!”

On its release, the idea that Battletoads
might be too easy was either skilfully
concealed in the glowing reviews that
the game received or, far more likely, was
simply not considered. Just as importantly,
the impressive sales that the title enjoyed
confirmed that NES gamers’ appreciation for
Battletoads matched the fevered enthusiasm
shown by the videogames press. Further
games in the series were now a formality,
but Battletoads would also have a second
less obvious legacy. “ Battletoads became
a template in some way,” Kevin reasons,
“perhaps Battletoads, when you think about it,
was a changing point for Rare, and a lot of the
game's elements echo throughout many of
the company’s later titles. Eventually it became
kind of a trademark | guess, and future Rare
games were often varied in the same kind of
way as Battletoads.”

Battletoads may be far from a template for
Rare's current output, but like many gamers,
Kevin feels that the seminal scrolling brawler
stands up against anything that Rare or anyone
else was producing at the time. “Most of
the games we produced were top quality,”
Kevin beams, “some titles were stronger
than others, but we learned as the company
grew about what people wanted in a game.
We always, always tried to make sure they
were just fun to play, and that they would give
a challenge to anyone who picked them up.
When | see Battletoads, | see a lot of game
rammed into that NES cart, and compared
to a lot of the other games that were out at
the time it offered a lot more. It looked great,
sounded and played fantastic and it set the
path for more Battletoads games, which
proved its success. It’s definitely one I’m
proud of being a part of.” ¥

Many thanks to Kevin Bayliss for
making this article possible.

pM:

ANTHROPOMORPHIC
FIGHTERS

Other animals with distinctly
un-animal-like behaviour

MIYAMOTO USAGI

ie sel Soeeaeeeie
MEMORABLE APPEARANCE:
SSA cM A tale Dem Lae =t=1t Nel) i Yojimbo

tM reg--1 ean M Ol elt) aby] Clune Ol-t-[e
appears in Dark Horse Comics’ Usagi Yojimbo - which

translates as “rabbit bodyguard”, Usagi is a ronin who
Oe ee nee) ROR leee lees] (ee ule me st 1
Software skilfully adapted Usagi for the C64 in Samurai
Taner di Cole e-Te Colne on) Uke

eS)

SPECIES: Turtle

MEMORABLE APPEARANCE:

Te Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
Laan Tele) Mateo Lah olen e) oleate CaO

eM ree areca le ea RU Male] e (10
EMail e Me em eel lee Rae cara ok (rl melf
the Turtles and was considered the most rounded fighter in
their Nineties videogames, the best of which was probably

eM eon mes

PRINCE LEON

SPECIES: Lion

MEMORABLE APPEARANCE:

ETUC ele ema ne 10

@ Based on his ‘Powerchord’ special attack, Prince Leon
ACN ERNE al Rie ae nal cele eed
ile ee anlar Ue enue a esa (eae
series Brutal. The Sega 32X's Above The Claw was the
Taare Teale Race ALM a e-laceal Me UTM Ua Mel Ulm S007 C1,
Te Mc lieth ele un Cm lu) CNA

COLD SHADOW
SPECIES: Duck

MEMORABLE APPEARANCE:
Maui Mallard In Cold Shadow

@ Donald Duck used to moonlight as a detective/ninja. No,
seriously, there was even a combat platformer called Maui
Mallard In Cold Shadow where Maui Mallard was Donald's
hapless detective cover for a ninja persona - Cold Shadow.
16-bit Disney titles typically impressed, and Cold Shadow's
OCs ela len

0 Slee
MEMORABLE APPEARANCE:

W He's often likened to Mario, apparently because his one game
was on Sega's answer to the NES - the Master System - and
olor eer](eMelO ne Reco Ree) aU Ue) Clue -ee (enlel ge) e)
most un-Nintendo-like move was taking out opponents by
punching them in the face! Well, he was called Psycho Fox.

TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 57

“ ULTIMATE GUIDE:

sUPER MARIO
Ros

Many consider Mario's third
NES adventure to be one of

his greatest. Join Ashley Day

as he makes a case for why [mf
those fans are probably
still correct

Instant Expert

Prior to its release, Super Mario
Bros 3 was revealed to the public
through a canny piece of product
placement in Hollywood

movie The Wizard.

At one stage in development
Nintendo considered a centaur suit
for Mario. This was later dropped
in favour of the raccoon suit.

Although the Koopalings are
all named after celebrities, their
appearances were based upon
seven of the programmers
working under Shigeru Miyamoto.

At 17 million copies sold, Super
Mario Bros 3 remains one of the
bestselling non-bundle games
ever released. The Virtual Console
version and the GBA release have
sold a further 1 million and

5 million copies respectively.

The idea of Mario 3's ingenious
overworld map was later used
again, albeit in simplified form, in
Super Mario World, and was more
accurately copied in both New
Super Mario Bros games.

Super Mario Bros 3 is one of
only ten games to be preserved
in the US Library of Congress's
Game Canon initiative. It is the
only Japanese game in the list.

The idea of different ‘suits’

for Mario to wear, rather

than simple power-ups, later
resurfaced in Super Mario Galaxy's
bee, boo and spring suits.

58 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

hether you were wealthy

enough to afford one
\ ] \ } or not when it was first
released, the NES was

undeniably a landmark
turning point for videogames. After
the primacy of the Atari 2600, the
clumsy DIY feel of Spectrum and
C64 games (which was perhaps
understanding when you consider
some of these games were made

by kids in their bedrooms), and

the daunting inaccessibility of the
games found in arcades, Nintendo's
unassuming grey box came along and
changed everything with one simple
rule: make games fun. Not every
game Nintendo released or published
was great, of course, but every game
that Nintendo created was always
easy to pick up and play, controlled
with a confident slickness, presented
a decent challenge without ever being
unfair, and positioned the videogame
as a wondrous window into another
world, a world filled with a sense

of discovery and joy that some felt

a a a a a ag a a a a ag a HH

had been missing. NES games were
what videogames should have been
all along — it's just that nobody really
realised until the day they were faced
with them.

The crown jewel of this era is
undoubtedly Super Mario Bros 3.
While the two previous Mario games
had been exceptional adventures
when compared to those games
available on other systems of the time,
Super Mario Bros 3 was exceptional
when compared to Nintendo's own
achievements. It took the template
laid out by the original Super Mario
Bros and expanded it in every possible
direction, resulting in a bigger, longer,
deeper and even taller videogame.

Its seemingly never-ending wealth

of interactions epitomised the NES
software catalogue and established the
Mario series as something truly special
in the world of videogames.

It might not have seemed like such
a revolutionary game at first glance,
since the opening few seconds were
almost exactly the same as Super

BSD

Mario Bros. The player is put in control
of a diminutive Mario, with a paltry
wo commands — run or jump — at his
disposal, the ability to eat a mushroom
‘0 grow in size, and the same old
enemies — the Goomba and Koopa

Troopa — to take on in the same old

way. Only a fresh lick of paint indicated
hat this was a different game at all.
But even within that first level, there
are a couple of hints of the greatness

‘o come. Around halfway through,

we come across the first of many

new power-ups, a leaf that illogically
ransforms Mario into a raccoon,
complete with ears and stripy tail.

Even more illogically, we discover

hat running at high speed for long
enough while dressed in the raccoon
suit will cause Mario to lift from

he ground and fly through the air,
eventually leading to a hidden batch of
coins high above the ground. And, with
that, the tone is set for a game that has
a new surprise around every corner and
a secret treat to discover where most
games would make do with the >

ULTIMATE GUIDE: SUPER MARIO BROS 3
Pixel Perfect The many sumptuous sprites of Super Mario Bros 3

HSS

Mario Super Mario Luigi Tanooki Mario Fire Mario Frog Mario

- A Bs ar

Hammer Mario Raccoon Mario Bob-omb Bullet Bill Buzzy Beetle Blooper

Boomerang Bros Boo Chain Chomp Goomba Hammer Bros
ji
ia |

f Pa |

a I
i
all
Jelectro Dry Bones Koopa Troopa (Green) Koopa Paratroopa (Green) Koopa Troopa (Red) Kuribo Goomba
Lakitu Micro Goomba Paragoomba Piranha Plant Rocky Wrench Sledge Bros

Statue Mario Thwomp

Morton Roy Wendy Bowser

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 59

Critical
Reception

What the gaming
press thought...

“Once you
start playing
you want to
keep going,
just to see what
surprises are
around the
next corner!
I ended up
playing it
all night!”

- JULIAN RIGNALL,
MEAN MACHINES, 1991

"Twin Galaxies
SS High Scores

SPEED RUN
NAME: RICHARD URETA
@ TIME: 00:11:15,

FASTEST FULL COMPLETION
(NO WARP WHISTLES)

@ NAME: KYLE GOEWERT.
@ TIME: 01:27:34

5 LIFE GAME
@ NAME: KYLE GOEWERT.
@ TIME: 2,568,080

60 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

‘ ULTIMATE GUIDE:

> rudimentary and the obvious.

Nintendo and, more accurately,
Shigeru Miyamoto, had played around
with secrets before, of course. Who
could forget the warp pipes of Super
Mario Bros, accessed by running along
the top of the level of World 1-2? Or the
many secrets hidden behind
the walls and bushes of Hyrule in
The Legend Of Zelda? Miyamoto was
famous for taking a childlike curiosity
and sense of discovery and using it
as inspiration for a videogame. And
in Super Mario Bros 3, he turned that
curiosity into an art form, every inch of
the Mushroom Kingdom littered with
secret areas and random events.

Not even the menus were safe
from this playful sandbox feel. Rather
than simply progress from one stage
to another in Mario 3, the player
was presented with a map screen
somewhat akin to a board game,
allowing them to move Mario
around the board and actually
choose which levels he
would tackle next, take
in some mini-game
distractions, and figure
out how to take a short cut
or two. Take the Hammer Bros that
wandered around the map screen, for
example: bump into one and you'd
be transported to a confrontation with
two of the deadliest enemies in the
Mario series. Most players would do
everything to avoid them, but if you
were brave enough to take them on and
win you'd be rewarded with a random
power-up that, if you were lucky, would
be a hammer that could break certain
rocks on the map and open up new
routes to the end of the world.

And, of course, there was the
Warp Whistle. Like the warp pipes of
the first game, the whistle allowed
experienced players to skip ahead to

Power Ups

(=
oa Ee

» This sliding mini-game was one of several that could earn bonuses for the player between levels.

the more challenging later levels.
But figuring out how to find
those whistles was a much
harder proposition. The first, for
example, required the player

to discover that it was
possible to actually enter the
background layer of the stage

in World 1-3 by crouching on an
unassuming white block for several
seconds. Once into the background,
Mario could run all the way along the
stage, safe from enemy attack, and
beyond the goal to a secret Toad House
where he would be rewarded with a
Warp Whistle.

This trick was actually one of the
simpler secrets to be uncovered in
Super Mario Bros 3. One that
transformed a wandering
Hammer Brother into an
airship, for example, could
only be activated by finishing
a level in a time with an even
number at the end while also
holding a multiple of 11 coins.
Such formulae were cleverly

used to give the game a mysterious
feeling of randomness, while others,
like the Warp Whistle secret, were
more about engendering a sense of
exploration in the player.

Either way, these secrets and
random events made Super Mario
Bros 3a game way ahead of its time.

It was a game that could be played
over and over again, each playthrough
offering a new surprise over the last. It
was a game that offered real choice to
the player, years before the branching
narrative RPG became popular. And
it was a game so packed with new
and exciting elements to discover that
some of its parts took on
a near-mythical status,
allowing fellow players
to trade their discoveries
and speculate about what
might also be hidden. 20
years on, it's a game that
still keeps surprising us, and
we can't think of many other
videogames that can make the
same claim. ¥

Mario is famed for his power-ups, and Super Mario Bros 3
had some of the greatest ever seen in the whole series

»Mushroom » Fire »Super Star _»Frog Suit »Kuribo » Leaf » Hammer
An old favourite. __ Flower _ Makes Mario Turns Mario into Avery rare Turns Mario into Transforms
Transforms Another classic. invulnerable for a frog, granting boot that we a raccoon and Mario into
Mario into This one grants a short period him exceptional find a Goomba grants him the a Hammer
the larger Mario the of time. You'll hopping and hopping around _abilityof flight. | Brother, with the
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as an extra life. limited time. music, too. very handy. a vehicle. the most of it. hammer time!

Memorable Moments

Curtain Call
The intro to Super
Mario Bros 3
presents the entire
game to the player
as though it were a
stage production,
complete with
spotlights and
huge curtains. It's
aweird premise
that's never really
explained, but it is
one of the most
memorable and
iconic openings to
any NES game.

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Question Blocked
A Question Block sits on the ground in the first
stage, befuddling Super Mario Bros players who
are only used to hitting the blocks from below.
The solution: get a Koopa shell and throw it into
the block. Genius.

t's terribles
King has been

KKK

King Idiot

Cut-scenes in a 2D Mario game? Can you
believe it? These pre-boss battle scenes were
pretty cool, though, always showing the King
of the Mushroom Kingdom transformed into
something humiliating.

LO i

2
is

aT TT
LittleBigMario

World 4's oversized level designs had a real
wow factor in the NES days, even though they
were really quite simple. The concept is so well-
loved, though, that it was recently revived for
Super Mario Galaxy 2.

ULTIMATE GUIDE: SUPER MARIO BROS 3

Non-Linear

Get to a certain point in the World 1 map screen
and it suddenly dawns on you that there's now

a significant element of choice in Super Mario
Bros 3. Four different options are available at this
first junction alone.

Hopping Mad
Super Mario Bros 3's Frog Suit is one of the most
iconic power-ups of all time and was the stuff

of legend back in the NES days. It felt so cool to
mess around with, exploring underwater with
fewer of the normal limitations.

Statue Mario

The Tanooki Suit is an enhanced form of
Raccoon Mario that gives him fur all over in
addition to the ears and the tail. Hold down and
B while wearing the suit and Mario will turn into
a statue, making him invincible.

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Hide And Seek

Crouch on any white block for a few seconds
and Mario will fall off it and into the background
layer of the stage. Sometimes it's just for fun;
other times it can actually lead Mario to a very
cool secret.

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Bum Rush
Pick up some speed and hold down on a slope
like this and Mario will slide all the way down
on his backside, taking out any enemies he hits
during his descent. It's the sort of satisfying
moment that SMB3 does best.

ae & a

An Old Friend
Lakitu makes his return in Super Mario Bros 3,
but we wouldn't call it a ‘long-awaited’ one.

He's still an annoying little nuisance. His later
relegation to cameraman and traffic light holder
couldn't come soon enough.

Fe ee te te ete he te ie tei teed

Suited And Booted

The Kuribo Shoe is probably the rarest item in
Super Mario Bros 3, only appearing in a couple
of levels. It also has to be one of the weirdest
power-ups in a Mario game. Do you think there's
an old woman and her family in there too?

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 61

World Tour

The Mushroom Kingdom has
been represented in many different
ways throughout Mario history,

but Super Mario Bros 3 was the
first time it was presented in so
much detail. Here’s how it stacked
up, from interactive map screens
to the levels themselves and their
climactic boss battles.

WORLD 1

World 1 eases the player in gently, the
opening level featuring zero hazards and
only a couple of fairly docile enemies, but
the threats quickly escalate. Before the
world is through you'll have contended
with slippery ice slopes toward oblivion,
an assault from the pesky Boomerang
Bros, and a madcap dash through an
airship as cannonballs shoot at you from
all directions. Phew!

BOSS: Iggy

One of Bowser's seven

children known as the

Koopalings, Iggy is

named after real-life

rocker Iggy Pop. But
that's not a microphone in his hand: it's a
deadly magic wand that he wants to shoot
at Mario. Thankfully, he’s quite easy to
dodge and, a trio of head stomps later, he'll
be out of the game.

mmm 62 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

‘ULTIMATE GUIDE:

Be A

2 ORLD 3
The third world is almost entirely made up of water-based levels, always
some of the trickiest stages in Mario games, especially when there's a
giant fish leaping out of the depths in an attempt to swallow him whole.
Thankfully, however, our hero has a new trick up his sleeve in the form of
the Frog Suit, which grants him enhanced swimming and jumping abilities.

BOSS: Wendy

Bowser's only daughter awaits Mario at the end of World 3,
™ and she's no princess, let us tell you. Like her brothers, her

weapon of choice is a wand, and this one fires what look
like life rings. Wendy is named after Wendy O Williams, lead
singer of punk outfit The Plasmatics.

WORLD 2

World 2's desert landscapes throw some
truly unexpected enemies at you, including
a teeny tiny Goomba that hides underneath
blocks of sand. One level introduces the
now-customary Boo enemy, a ghost that
will stop pursuing you as long as you look it
in the eye. And in another stage you're even
attacked by the sun itself. Weird.

BOSS: Morton
—, Not that much more
A I troubling than his brother
Iggy, Morton also wields
a wand but is able to
throw out multiple
bouncing projectiles at once. Also named
after a real-life musician, he takes his name
from American singer and talk show host
Morton Downey Jr.

PER MARIO BROS 3

LIORLG 6

World 6 is where things really
start to get tough. Icy surfaces,
spiked floors and multiple enemy
types all crowded into the screen
make it very easy for Mario to
meet his demise if you don’t keep
precise control over him at all
times. Prepare to use a fair few
continues in this world.

BOSS:

Lemmy

Riding around on

a huge rubber

ball, Lemmy

causes trouble
for Mario by launching several
other bouncy balls at him. It's
utter chaos and pretty difficult to
get through in one piece. We'll
forgive Lemmy, though, simply
because he's named after the
legendary lead singer of UK
metallers Motérhead.

WORLD 5
While the first half of the fifth world takes place in familiar grassland
territory, the second half sends Mario up into the air to explore the
clouds. Being so high up, however, means only one thing: lots and
lots of bottomless pits to fall into.
BOSS: Roy
Jy One of the most dangerous of the Koopalings,
"Roy is able to stomp on the ground, sending out
shockwaves that stun Mario into submission for
a few seconds. Best to stay in the air, then. He's
named after Roy Orbison. Of course.

LIORLG &

Anyone who used Warp Whistles to cheat their way to oH
the final world soon found that their skills were nowhere foayee.
near up to the challenge, as Bowser's army attacks Mario

with a mile-long caravan of gigantic tanks. This level, and a Oe ee ree.
the handful that followed, are some of the hardest in | Fe ae ae mee
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Mario's history.

BOSS: Bowser (ole)
King Koopa himself awaits Mario at the Po)
end of World 8, and he’s suitably tough to . ==

beat. You can't actually hurt him, so dodge H |

his fireballs and try to get him to stomp

in the middle of the stage. If he does it

enough he'll break the floor and fall into

the lava below.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 33 ——

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» NES » 1986 » NINTENDO

There are some who regard Kid Icarus as an

unsung hero of the NES. While I'd be the first

to admit that the game looks and sounds pretty

— thanks to it running from the same guts as

Metroid, and having that sublime Tanaka music.
For me, it's ever so slightly let down by some frustrating little
design flaws. [But | love Kid /carus! - Ed]

Kid Icarus still demonstrates that good ol’ Nintendo template;
creating a videogame based on three central characters: a good
God, a bad God, who's been turned into an evil medusa by the
good God, and an unlikely hero with a silly name.

Essentially trying to cram platform, shooting and RPG
elements into one game and, for the mostpart, succeeding,
Kid Icarus does undo a little of that greatness by throwing up a
troupe of brilliantly drawn, but annoyingly cheap enemies that
make you want to rip the cart from your NES and kick it at a
furnace. Needless to say, practice is key.

Pit, your angelic hero, has to face off against an army of
skeletons that will absorb a ridiculous amount of arrows, silly
sporadic squids that miraculously appear from the base of
the screen at the most maddening of moments and plenty of
stupid drops that kill your character outright. But thanks to its
levelling up and shopping elements, the further you get in the
game the easier it gets, which | do like.

For the quest, Nintendo has bestowed us one measly life,
which was probably its attempt to impart this jarring sense of
realism. But when you're playing a videogame about an angel
quashing a bunch of flying eyes and eggplants with arrow
heads, it does feel a little unfair.

The game isn't a complete tool, however, as when you
die, you can always fall back on its 24-digit, case-sensitive
password system. Nintendo would soften the blow though
by putting it to use on some brilliant cheat codes. Just input
‘8uuuuU UUUUUU UUUUUU UUUUUU’ if you want to see the game's
final Parodius stage — and see a fully powered Pit take to the
skies and face off against a giant eyeball and its pet dragon.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 65

“ini

Henk ROGER

APRARIN

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first saw Tetris at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas,
1988,” says Henk Rogers, the man
who had changed the gaming world
= once by introducing the RPG to
Japan with Famicom’s Black Onyx. Little
did he know that he was about to do it again
by taking an amazing new Russian puzzle
game and embarking down a path that would
eventually bring that game to the masses. “I
was going to trade shows looking for games
to bring to Japan. Most of the games, you
really can’t get a feel for how they play in
such a short time. You stand in line, it’s your
turn to play, you play a little and then you
move on. Well by the time I'd played Tetris
for the fourth time | realised | was hooked. |
started going after the rights there and then.”
Before getting involved with the Game Boy
edition, Henk secured the console rights to Tetris

“TL was Unanna

NapPened in tne

and produced a Famicom version for Nintendo. But
initially, its success was far from assured. “That
Christmas, Tetris had come out and | thought it
was going to be a great opportunity,” remembers
Henk. “But for a game to become a hit you really
have to sell about 100 to 200 thousand in your first
order, and I'd managed to get 40,000. That's not
even worth making. | went to [Nintendo president]
Hiroshi Yamauchi and | said, ‘Listen, | think | have
one of the greatest games of all time here. | don’t
know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sales
guy or my marketing guy is ineffective, whatever,
but it's off to a wrong start and | need your help, so
can you do something for me?’

“He called in Miyamoto and said ‘Is this really
a great game?’ and Miyamoto replied ‘All of your
accountants and secretaries are playing this game

Unced,
Soe
Weren't Supposed TO

on their lunch breaks and after hours every day.
It's a great game!’ So then Yamauchi called in
Hiroshi Imanishi, who was the number two, and
said ‘I want you to have our sales guy call every
distribution company and tell them to order more.
I'm going ‘Wow! There’s some serious action
going on there.”

Yamauchi’s typically fierce business acumen
netted Famicom’s Tetris another 30,000 orders,
bringing the total number up to 70,000, which was
still some way off the minimum 100,000 orders
needed to generate a hit. With so many excess
cartridges in production Bulletproof would have to
start slashing prices or dumping stock altogether
by January, a resort that Henk simply couldn't
afford to take. “If a game goes into dumping and
is sold for less than it cost then you're basically
screwed!” exclaims Henk. “Nothing has ever
come back from that situation. So | called my sales
guy and got him to call the distributors saying

Wor Peer
Union, You
talk To anyoody"

‘This is not a game that sells quickly. Hold onto
your inventory because it will come back!’ This
was something unheard of, and some of the stores
actually did sell out by February and eventually

all the stores were screaming for the game. We
ended up selling 2 million.”

If this situation wasn’t stressful enough, Henk
arrived in Russia that same February, uninvited yet
determined to grab the handheld rights to Tetris
for Nintendo’s Game Boy platform. “That was my
first time there and it was my reason for going. In
February, with a tourist visa, | landed in Moscow
and started looking for Electronorgtechnica. And
| was unannounced, which never happened in
the Soviet Union. You weren't supposed to talk to
anybody, let alone do any kind of business with
anybody, and this was a government organisation.
| walk into this place unannounced and they’re
going ‘who the hell are you?’ | said, ‘I’m the guy
who publishes Tetris in Japan. | want to talk to
somebody about it.’ The guy, Mr Belikov, who

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THE MAKING OF: TETRIS

» Hooray! | Quadruple line score! Waiting for that | Tetrimino almost always
pays off if you're aiming for those really high scores.

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE :| 67

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Henk Rogers recalls Alexey
Pajitnov’s first trip to Japan

“HE DIDN'T HAVE any first-hand
knowledge. The first time | brought
him into Japan and we went into

a supermarket, his jaw dropped.

His reaction was like ‘Oh my God!’
that this could possibly exist. If you
wanted an apple in Moscow you
had to stand in line with a hundred
people and wait for them to call

you up. You had no choice. And
there’s no sign in that window saying
‘apple for sale’. Word gets around
and when you see people queuing
you know there’s something for

sale there. Now here he was in a
supermarket surrounded by piles of
fruit, and people could just pick the
ones that they wanted. And these
were ordinary people. They weren't
rich and it wasn’t a movie set. Up till
then he kind of thought that all these
things were like movies; they didn’t
actually exist, they were just props in
a movie. But then he realised, oh my
God, all that stuff you see in a movie
actually exists. | nok there were
tears in his eyes.”

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Wt &
Interpreter

ended up negotiating with me eventually got
into a lot of trouble for meeting me. They grilled
him! They said, ‘how did you get in touch? You
must have had secret communication with him.’
They bugged his room and listened in on his
conversations, to find out how the hell he found
me when, actually, he had nothing to do with it.”
So how did Henk manage to track down the
owners of Tetris against such resistance and
suspicion? How did it all come about? “| rented
an interpreter and a car with a chauffeur. In
retrospect, she was probably KGB. She knew
everything about everything and already knew
who | was and what | was looking for. She would
have the answer to my questions before I’d even
asked them. So, they drove me to the Ministry
Of Software on the Thursday, the day after I'd
arrived, but she wouldn't go in with me. | said,
‘Why not? What are you talking about?’ She said,
“You don't have an invitation. You're not supposed
to go in there. And | can’t go in there.’ ‘But you're
my interpreter’, | said. Then | thought ‘Well, | didn’t
come all the way to the Soviet Union, thousands
of miles, to be stopped by a door.’ So | just walked

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through that door. | said, ‘I want to talk to someone
about Tetris.’

“A little while later, somebody came down the
stairs and asks ‘who the hell are you’. | explain
and say ‘I publish the Nintendo version of Tetris
in Japan’. And he says... ‘We never sold those
rights to anyone’. Well, holy crap! | had 100,000
cartridges in manufacturing, which means that I’ve
borrowed 2 million dollars from the bank, using
all of my in-laws’ land as collateral, and it turns
out | have to bury those cartridges. | was really
screwed... There was no way | could pay them
back. So | said ‘Listen, | want to talk to somebody
about it. And sure enough the next day | was given
the third degree for three hours. Again, there were
the guys from the ministry, the guys from KGB
and there was [Tetris creator] Alexey Pajitnov. He
was in the room! The ministry knew nothing about

Trospect, tne

KGB"

the game and the only one who knew anything
about it was Alexey. | could actually have a decent
conversation with him about it. | was the first guy
he met from outside the Soviet Union that actually
understood anything about the game at all.”
Henk’s’ friendship with Pajitnov, and his
persistence with Electronorgtechnica, eventually
paid off and he returned to Japan with the rights
to produce the first officially licensed handheld
edition of Tetris, which would be programmed by
Nintendo. “I came up with the innovation of which
buttons to use,” says Henk. “I thought that | had
to make the interface a certain way, to match the
way the PC game worked. The way the PC version
worked, you have a left, a right, the middle button
is rotate and then the space bar is hard drop. So
if you flip that and transfer it to the little Nintendo
controller, you've got left, right, pull down to
rotate and then the fire button will give you a hard
drop. That’s how it translates, and | thought that

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didn’t make sense, that the movement of the piece
should all be on the left hand and rotation of the
piece on the right hand. | asked my programmers
to make it that way but when we sent it to OA
everybody hated it. But of course, if you're in the
middle of playing a game and all of a sudden the
gas pedal and brake are reversed then nobody

can handle that. And, in fact, that’s exactly what
Nintendo did, putting the movement and drop on
the D-pad and left and right rotation on the two
buttons. They also added a soft drop to the D-pad.
And that was one of the complaints about it, that
you'd move left and right and every once in a while
accidentally hit the down button and cause a hard
drop. But Nintendo added the soft drop so it would
only drop a little faster rather than instantly. You
could still control it after hitting down by accident.”

orting Tetris to Game Boy should have
been a simple affair, but there was
another complication. “The approval
was meant to be done on a Friday and
then the game would go to mastering
on the Monday, so there really was no time,”
recalls Henk. “So on Friday | get the game and I’m
playing, on a Game Boy, and it feels like one of
the pieces is coming up more than the others. It’s
supposed to be random, a one in seven chance of

» You're playing the music in your head right now, aren't you?

|
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Elo

“THE THING ABOUT music is that there
are rights issues [with licensed tracks]

or you have to create something good
enough, so | told my guys ‘Find me a
Russian folk song’, because those things
are free, theyre public domain. And the
fact that they've lasted hundreds of years
means that they must be good. And yet
people in the west haven't heard them as
much as the people in Russia have, so let’s

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Henk Rogers explains the origin of that catchy Tetris theme tune

give it a shot. We tried it and it was okay,
people didn’t object to it. And it ended up
becoming a ‘have to have’ together with
Tetris; people started identifying the game
with that music, which is a good thing. But
it turns out that they weren't all folk songs.
One of them was a soldier singing to his
girl while he’s fighting, hoping that he'll
make it back. If I'd have known what the
words were... | had no idea.”

each piece coming up at any given moment. So |
told my QA guys, ‘Give me the statistics on how
often each piece comes out.’ And, sure enough,
it turns out that one of the pieces is coming out
twice as often as the rest. So | called Nintendo and
said, ‘This is unacceptable. The Russians are never
going to allow this!’

What Henk wasn’t telling Nintendo, is that the
Russians didn’t actually require final approval.
“| pretended, because the rights came from me,
that | had to get approval from the Russians,
which | didn’t because no one there knew a damn
thing, and we didn’t have the time to send them
the game then wait for a reaction to come back.
But they didn’t understand the game anyway,
‘so it didn’t matter.” Instead, Henk relied on his
own instinct. “There really is no other game
that requires a real random number generator,”
he continues. “If one too many stars come up
in Mario nobody is ever going to know it was a
mistake, but in Tetris you’d know. So Nintendo’s
programmers came to my office in Yokohama
from Kyoto, two guys come in and we sit there
and think of how to fix it. For them to write a new
random number generator on Saturday, ready for
mastering on Monday was unthinkable. So | said,
‘It's piece one that’s coming up twice as much as

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the rest, so this is what you do. When you roll a
one it means it’s piece one. The next time you roll
a one, you add one. The next time you roll a one,
you add two, and so on. That way the error in the
random number generator will be spread across
all the pieces.’ So that’s what they did and then
you couldn't tell that it wasn’t random.”

And with that, Game Boy Tetris was completed.
There's an end to Henk’s Tetris story; the decision
to give away this fantastic game for free, to
everyone in the west who bought a new Game
Boy. “I think | was in Redmond talking with
Nintendo and it seemed like Game Boy was the
best platform for Tetris. [Minoru Arakawa said
‘Why shouldn't | pack in Mario?’ | said ‘Well if
you want to sell Game Boy to little boys then
pack in Mario but if you want to sell Game Boy to
everybody then pack in Tetris.”

Game Boy and Tetris went hand-in-hand, and
with sales of 30 million, they put both game and
hardware into the collective consciousness of a
generation. Henk Rogers now runs the Tetris
Company alongside Alexey Pajitnov, licensing
Tetris and standardising its rules for future
generations. 31 years after Henk first got
hooked on Tetris, it seems he still can’t put
the puzzle game down. ¥

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ATE GUIDE:

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CREATING AN EPIC FANTASY ADVENTURE FOR A TINY
MONOCHROME SCREEN WAS NEVER GOING TO BE AN
EASY TASK. BUT, TO THE SURPRISE OF ABSOLUTELY
NOBODY , NINTENDO HAD THE COURAGE, WISDOM,
AND POWER TO PULL IT OFF FLAWLESSLY.
RETRO GAMER REVISITS ONE OF THE MOST
UNDERRATED MEMBERS OF THE ZELDA FAMILY

LTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING

CHEF BEAR
AMT I-KIRBY

f there’s one thing that other games could

stand to learn from Link’s Awakening, it’s

that the stakes don’t need to be absurdly

high for a story to be captivating. Having
spent three games (and many more after this
one) dealing with potential end-of-the-world
scenarios, Link’s Awakening is little more than
an escape room by comparison — our hero finds
himself marooned on a strange island following
a shipwreck and is tasked with simply getting
away. And so, under the guidance of a talking
owl and with a little help from some of the
friendly islanders, Link sets about attempting to
wake the mighty Wind Fish from its slumber,
which is apparently the only way he might
leave Koholint Island.

Mechanically, Link’s Awakening feels

Eats aL Co) greatest Weel ete ol For some unknown reason, Marin really likes it when you use the Shovel.
the best elements of the trio of preceding TR eae ene MRT cae
games. Parallels with A Link To The Past are
unsurprising given that this game originally

started out as a proposed port of the SNES another case of big ideas on hardware that MARTH
classic, but it clearly helped to influence should by rights be too small for them. Literally,

and inform much of the Game Boy release’s in this case - as well as a smaller, monochrome

design. In terms of the NES games, Zelda II's screen to work with, there would also be the

impact is most apparent from the inclusion button limitations of the Game Boy to consider

of side-scrolling sections, while similarities to after A Link To The Past had gone beyond what

the original primarily spring from this being was possible on the two-button NES controller.

A handful of talented artists would see to that || LP

first issue, but the second would not be so
easily resolved.

Despite the Game Boy sharing the same
limited control options as the NES, A Link To
The Past evolved the core systems of the series
to a point that made use of more buttons,
so a creative solution was required. To that
end, Link’s Awakening became the first Zelda
game where the sword is not mapped to its
own button, with both the A and B buttons

ARHOS KMIGHT

er Mh Va :)=28) 1m 01) =

PIRANHA
fe

COLOUR US
IMPRESSED

LINK GETS A FRESH
OSU ea OO 0

able to be assigned to any item Link finds.
While this can make for some fiddly item
switching (particularly in later, more complex
dungeons), the flexibility of the system also
allows for the use of item combos the likes of
which the series hadn’t seen before... or since,
really. Long gaps can be cleared by combining
the Pegasus Boots with the Roc’s Feather, for
instance, or equipping Bombs and the Bow
and pressing both buttons simultaneously
allows Link to loose an explosive arrow. While
the former is the only item combo required to
beat the game, having those other options in
there gives players a chance to be surprised by
their own experimental solutions — a rarity ina
series so grounded in linear formula, and really
Seo) nn1-) (al iale mele moa Vela MCL
entry in the Zelda series, Breath Of The Wild.

he differences between Link’s Awakening
EUR me mice yells elma)
b there, either. Trading sequences are a
staple sidequest in the franchise, but this
is the only Zelda game where the entire
endeavour is mandatory. As such, it’s a little

@ Arriving some five years after the original
game's release, Link’s Awakening DX for Game ,
Boy Color breathed new life into the classic

adventure with its vivid palette and suite of new
features. Chief among these — aside from the

colourful visual upgrade — is a brand-new dungeon

for Link to explore. The aptly named Color )
Dungeon expands on what was possible in the
monochrome original, with puzzles and mechanics
that rely on the use of coloured objects and
enemies. Completing this trial rewards Link with
Eelam) Mitt a Mat" Od olde Sel =] (Tel Ole
new items that double his attack and defence
respectively. In addition, the enhanced port also
features support for the Game Boy Printer, with a
number of photo opportunities added to the world
for Link to find over the course of his adventure.
The resulting snapshots can be printed out as cute
aCe ewe ee eee

Aisa CMe Van aM eee MUM aun SCM a TE TCOn TIC)
and make you start the fight over. Mind the gaps as you work its tail.

more streamlined and obvious than its peers and
feels more like helping people out along your
journey, rather than ditching your main objective
and going out of your way to run errands for
them. It’s strange that would be the case in the
game with the least pressing objective in the
entire series, but it’s a great way of allowing
players to meet the weird and wonderful
residents of Koholint without it feeling like
busywork. But perhaps the most noticeable
difference of all is the game’s tone, which is much
more playful, whimsical and lighthearted than
any other game in the series, thanks in no small
part to the lack of a Ganon-like big bad looming
large and ready to bring an end to the world.

There's just this wonderful dreamlike quality to
- Koholint, apparent in everything from its curious
_ cast of characters and creatures to it having the

feel of a slightly misremembered memory of a
Zelda adventure, with elements of other Nintendo
games seeping in (domesticated Chain Chomps
are found in Mabe Village, Mario enemies such as
Goombas and Piranha Plants inhabit dungeons,
as does an evil version of Kirby later on, while

- the trading sequence includes cameos from

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING

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LINK.
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REAWAK ENING LINK A LEGEND REBORN ON SWITCH

@ We've long maintained that Link's Awakening original’s simple style. A slightly angled top-down recreated, there’s also another brand-new dungeon
deserves to be enjoyed and adored by a much wider viewpoint allows the game's beautiful environments OMe MMMM Malu Lm OU ale Cee CUe tLe)
audience, and Nintendo finally seems to agree — the to pop like never before, and it’s going to be a joy proposition, as it allows players to piece together
CEM MMe aR Me RMU mel yg to see how the many and varied locations across Lime meet ee eee Mie eel me Tarle(-y
relmateele eal eel em eM CaN eo UG) ite] ata CM Cle am emer Le ul ate Mar li ae ( 1 Caton rooms unlocked as the game progresses. You can
looks like a diorama come to life, and while it might As with Link's Awakening DX before it, Nintendo Oe Ce mae laale mele mee Clu)

be a little twee for some people’s tastes, there’s ey Ue eR CMU em Ame creations, so be sure to head to where the Camera
no denying that it perfectly captures the feel of the Te mem Reece Te mdr bd Sit) Re eGo Re tala a

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 73

74 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

WAAC Rel oe yy

= = = ee

A FEW OF THE TRICKS SPEEDRUNNERS USE
OTN Re Oe ZL

SAVE/QUIT

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ERR UNA e weet Cm Ren OR Ul)
eMC M MMU URC MERU ce eal malar] lA
Here, entering and leaving buildings and caves is the
usual way to set where you restart after quitting,

EN Ue aM el Reno uM eam sO ale (relat Co}
OCU ARC OR RLU eel Re

Moy SKIP

i Just as most text can be skipped, so too can the
majority of the short musical interludes that occur when
you pick up the instrument at the end of a dungeon. This
involves setting up Link’s position so he’s only a pixel
away from the instrument and using the map screen

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te MMU) Rm ee
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to longer conversations. It only typically saves a few
seconds per instance, but that all adds up over the
ele Re

ODT ae

i Oddly, using a bomb exactly as a screen transition
xe eR eM mre (* ual RL tered
happens on the new screen. This can be used to skip
PURO ee rete eer UAT me) ca ly
Turtle Rock dungeon, break the pillars in Eagle’s Tower,
and even skip the Wind Fish Egg sequence, although it
can be quite fiddly and requires two bombs per skip.

@ How convenient that the first key item you get allows
ele ee Mae ie allie ecm yma year male}
the corner of a wall and moving along it then swinging
eee RN H ur me Re ea Bln cm urle
can clear otherwise impossible obstacles and even
ignore elevation changes. There are a bunch of spots
where this can save significant time.

IT roy NT

@ Routes that do dungeons out of order can abuse
Peal me: UC MUU RC LCCEL NCIC T+ Mel my
game's sprite limit. Going into the menu quickly
after multiple Magic Rod projectiles are active can
cause intense slowdown, and changing the screen
straight after this will despawn any sprites on that
screen, including bosses.

(Aas

pate

Lad LO) a

ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING

True to form, any Great Fairies you find will
fully restore your health. Smaller ones can't
be captured, although Crazy Tracy's Secret
Medicine has the same revival effect.

Yoshi, Peach and even Prince Richard from
Link’s Awakening’s Japan-only Game Boy
forerunner, Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru)
and lashings of self-referential humour in a
series that typically tends to play things pretty
straight.

Il of this combines to give Link’s
Awakening a very different flavour to
most other Zelda games, and it’s
perhaps for this reason that it’s not
treated with the same reverence as notable
series highlights such as A Link To The Past and
Ocarina Of Time. For all its charm and whimsy,
though, it’s somewhat ironic that this clear
outlier should be one of the most rigidly linear
examples of traditional Zelda game structure,
to the point where dungeons are literally
numbered and cannot be tackled out of
sequence. Conversely, the dungeons
aaNet Ole MAU] TO Ile)
handholding after the first few, save for a
handful of stone tablets that offer cryptic
clues. Crucial items can be hidden in
untelegraphed secret rooms, while some of the
puzzles and chests require a level of lateral
thinking far beyond the standard ‘use the last
item you picked up to overcome this’ nature of
so many other games in the genre.

TSUN NN LRU Sue en Cu MUEL eR UCM en e-LnclS AUU ACE COCR UEl CRC Rec EC clei RL

We almost feel bad for Link’s Awakening, and
indeed for so many of the slightly quirkier Zelda
games that came after it. They’re inherently
always going to exist in the shadow of the
handful of truly genre-defining members of their
own family, their own innovations and triumphs
dwarfed by those of the two Zelda games that
have a residency on just about every major all-
time top ten list ever compiled. But it’s important
to remember just how much of an impact these
less-discussed classics in the series help shape
and evolve the all-time greats — by Eiji Aonuma’s
own admission in an Iwata Asks piece from
2010, Ocarina Of Time would have been a very
different game were it not for innovations from
Link’s Awakening in the fields of broad narrative
and character development. Interestingly, the
same piece also cites Twin Peaks as an influence
on Link’s Awakening, which makes a heck of
a lot of sense in retrospect. It’s important to
love and respect these series underdogs, then,
since without them, the classics that dominate
discussion of both series and genre simply would
no exist. As if Link’s Awakening weren't lovable
enough already, that’s just another reason it'll
always be one of our favourite Zelda games.

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PEAHAT

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 75

POKEMON RED/
BLUE/YELLOW

RELEASED: 1996 PUBLISHER: NINTENDO DEVELOPER: GAME FREAK SYSTEM: GAME BOY

Pokémon created a new generation of role-playing fans
with the most brilliantly simple of youth-friendly ideas:
collecting and swapping...

any of the kids who picked up Pokémon had
probably never heard of an RPG before. When
Pokémon Red and Blue arrived in 1999, the franchise
had already blown up in the UK since the game
released a year earlier in the US, with interest ballooning in the
awful animated cartoon, the frankly odd-looking pocket monsters
themselves and later the accompanying card game. It was a
terrifyingly large craze that just happened to bring a somewhat niche
genre to an enormous young audience, via some classically savvy
Nintendo-branded game design.
This many years later, it’s obvious that the game component
of Pokémon had a kind of timeless merit, while other parts of the
operation did not. The cartoon was far from impressive to look
at, and could be painfully cheesy; the character designs only got

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progressively worse from Voltorb, Electrode and Ditto; the card
game isn’t the force it once was. Pokémon Red, Blue and later
Yellow marked, for the young generation of the late Nineties, their
first experiences of an RPG and the trappings of its mechanics,
channelled beautifully through a well-structured adventure that
challenged players to catch and level up their own pocket monsters.
Players were offered complete customisation of their battle line-up in
a world populated with almost 150 creatures to catch. They were all
out there, somewhere — and only determined exploration, as well as
collaboration with your friends, would reveal them all.

The compulsive mentality it tapped into for kids was very much
the same thing that leads them to complete football sticker albums,
or —a more modern example — finding diamonds in Minecraft. It's
that completionist attitude, married to the ingeniously unpredictable

C4 -P

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GAME CHANGERS: POKEMON RED/BLUE/YELLOW

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HOW IT TOOK OVER THE EARTH

POKEMON CONQUERED THE NINETIES AND BEYOND - THIS IS WHY IT HAPPENED

Le Bed CONSOLE SPIN-OFFS ICONOGRAPHY

*& Trading cards, LCD Tamagotchi
facsimiles, toys and the somewhat
repetitive TV show; Pokémonis a pop
culture megalodon that dominates
multiple forms of media. The card game
isn’t as massive these days, but it was all
over playgrounds in the late Nineties. electric rodent.
process of catching Pokémon, that underlined the appeal of Red
and Blue. Yet it was the social interaction side of things that really
altered industry thinking. Pokémon Red and Blue promoted use of
the Game Boy's relatively obscure link cable as its founding conceit,
that players would swap their Pokémon and battle with them using
a pretty dusty old peripheral. The two different versions had 11
interchangeable monsters that could only be found on either Red or
Blue, as well as four that could solely be obtained through trading
with a fellow player; to complete your collection, Pokémon required
you to interact with friends in order to get there, and many did. It
opened up the potential of multiplayer experiences on handhelds in a
way that we hadn't seen before.

There was something oddly powerful about the idea of sending
a Pokémon that you'd raised over to a friend and receiving a brand-
new one in return. Pokémon, after all, is basically about the battles
that you fight and the creatures you fight them with — there was a

664Pokémon brought a niche
genre to an enormous young
audience 99

sense of investment in that that’s still entirely unique to this franchise
and remains a big pull to this day.

But the other, more adrenaline-fuelled half of the link cable
functionality was arguably the most exciting part of it all. The combat
component to the multiplayer was essential, bridging two players’
massive adventures and adding some genuine personal stakes as
you pit your two sets of monsters against each other. Players could
strategise in these scraps, instead of contending with frequently silly
Al that spams nothing attacks like Tail Whip and Growl in the midst
of crucial battles. An entire worldwide phenomenon of competitions
grew out of these two incredibly smart but simple uses of an old
peripheral that had first been released a decade earlier.

It could be argued that the series has become ruthlessly
complicated in recent years, piling on more characters in a way
that doesn't really add to the quality of the product, even as the
realisation of the settings and creatures has become so much richer.

ae (-- 7 4 Fi _-F

% Pokémor’s tendrils extended beyond
the Game Boy, too, with amusing but thin
N64 titles Pokémon Snap and Stadium
finding significant success. A forgotten
and reportedly rubbish curio, Hey You
Pikachul, allowed you to speak to the

When you catch

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% We'd argue that Pokémon design has
become rather uninspired in recent years,
and even Red and Blue had the likes

of Voltorb and Exeggcute to make the
whole thing seem embarrassing. At the
same time, many of the creatures were
brilliantly designed.

CONSISTENCY

* While the number bloated from 150
monsters to an exhausting 809 today,
Pokémon has remained a very strong
franchise. The task of catching them all is
more intimidating than it used to be, but
every generation has allowed the series
to find new fans.

» This classic battle scene will be familiar to millions.

Any kid who wants to catch ‘em all these days needs a bottomless
pit of time and overly generous parents to accumulate all the
necessary titles — that seems counter to the binary simplicity of what
Red and Blue originally represented. You and your friends, separately
invested in your own adventures, collected Pokémon to your
obsessive satisfaction. Then, on the most unlikely of formats, you
brought your two adventures together to complete that experience.
The effect Pokémon had on the gaming landscape went far
beyond the boundaries of its own success, however. Nintendo
had stealthily introduced millions of players to the previously niche
RPG genre, on an even bigger scale than Final Fantasy VII did in
1997, using its colourful setting and characters as a Trojan horse
for what is undoubtedly fantastic and complex, stat-driven combat
design. While visually speaking, Pokémon Red, Blue and were
made to appeal to children, the actual meat of the experience was
mature enough to give it a multi-generational appeal. Sword and
Shields release this year on Switch only underlines that status — this
franchise will live on forever, and rightfully so. ¥€

a ee

KEY LESSONS FRO

From those hundreds of hours invested in Pokemon in the late
Nineties, these are some of the most the vital pieces of info that
will live with us forever

1 ME 3

NEW SPECIE

‘og
Although squirtle is a relatively close second HT 1° oa” Charmander is a poor choice of starting Pokémon,
place, Bulbasaur will blitz through early gym leaders really, even if this tiny dragon features the best
Brock and Misty as soon as you have unlocked the Ao. 51 KT g.0/1b character design of the three starters, as it fails
Vine Whip skill. The evolutions into lvysaur and = massively in the face of anti-fire gym leaders Brock

Venusaur bring steadily more powerful abilities, too, S hk 7 and Misty. We've no doubt many players picked
underlining the fact that Bulbasaur makes the game oO rare that it Charmander right away when they started the game
a lot easier. is still said to — it makes that first half of the game a chore.

aA mirage by

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The Pokémon we
taught Flash to were
borked forever, basically.
And for what? A glorified
version of Smokescreen
that occupies an ability Wild WEEDLE
slot forever. Aside from
Surf and maybe Fly, HMs

et et at Pes e (Hidden Machines) will
quite simply spoil your veteran Pokémon by limiting their potential to learn the
more effective TMs later in the game.

appeared?

78 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

= iis Fi eq 3 Py
HANGERS: POKEMON RED/ BLUE/YELLOW

en ®
a GAME C

iS =
& bs
i =
PIKACHL
~ ¥ MOUSE If you endured the torrent of late Nineties
es i Pokémon culture, Yellow is unmissable, dovetailing
HT . aeroe with the story of the television show in a more
pronounced way, with Pikachu always by Ash's
Mo. OS WT ans Ik side and all three starter Pokémon (Bulbasaur,

Charmander, and Squirtle) handed to you as part of

the story. It also looked slightly better on the GBA.
* me SILPH co.

JOFFICE BUILDING

9 1

Ken Sugimori, the designer of every Pokémon in
the original games, managed to unleash on the world
ascarier creation than Jason Voorhees, Slenderman
and combined. Mr. Mime (is there a Mrs. Mime? We
really hope not) is fairly useful in battle as a buffer
between fighters, but his design goes well beyond the
traditional realms of terror.

FireRed and LeafGreen offers players the chance
to play as a female character instead of the usual
dorky lad, but it’s the visual upgrade that heralded
the biggest change, bringing all 151 Pokémona
contemporary polish that consumers were of course
happy to buy into. It also brought a version of Green
to the West for the first time.

MF. MIME
BARRIER

Pe) © eae Seen
KT wl b

ae a Fo ee a ae a I Fo a i 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 79

After the acclaimed Batman and Head Over Heels wowed Spectrum
owners, Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond took their isometric magic
to the Game Boy. Craig Grannell interviews the pair about working on
the new platform, rethinking design for handhelds, and their publisher’s
baffling decision to scupper the game’s chances of success

ith two Ultimate-style
hits - Batman and Head
Over Heels - under his
belt, perhaps it was fate
Jon Ritman would eventually find
himself working with Ultimate
successor company Rare. He recalls
reading a magazine article about the
company looking for new talent, and
then visiting and it not even crossing his
mind they wouldn't want to work with
him. “It must have been quite arrogant
of me at the time, but we did have a
laugh about it later, and | had plenty
of late-night conversations with Chris
Stamper, when we both did our best
work,” says Jon.

Much of his time was spent working
ona development system, and when
that was finished, Jon figured he'd
like to make a game with it himself.

“| decided to work on the Game Boy,
which seemed like a fun console, and
decided on an isometric adventure
because |'d not seen that at the time
on the platform,” says Jon, reasoning
that games to that point had perhaps
been driven in a certain direction by
hardware. “Remember, I'd learned my
trade working on a pretty open-ended
ZX Spectrum, and | did what | wanted.

The Game Boy came with the likes of
hardware sprites, and if you make it
easy for people to go down a certain
route, of course they will. | thought
it'd be good to buck the trend and try
something different!”

The game he created would become
Monster Max, an epic and visually
striking isometric adventure packed full
of puzzles, twice the size of Head Over
Heels. Once again, Jon enlisted regular
co-conspirator Bernie Drummond
to work on the game's graphics.
“Personally, | loved the isometric 3D
format — it seemed more immersive
than standard platform or top-down
games,” Bernie says, adding that with
the Game Boy having a Z80-style chip
and more memory than the Spectrum,
Jon was able to “easily convert the
isometric game format” to the tiny
handheld. He adds that “the main
worry was the screen size” and most
of the duo's time was therefore spent
drawing graphics, building the map and
designing the rooms.

Jon's quick to point out it wasn’t
entirely plain sailing, however: “The
engine was a complete rewrite,
because the Game Boy chip is really
a kind of ‘Z80 lite’, and the console

THE MAKING OF: MONSTER MAX

clearly wasn't designed to do anything
with a full high-res screen. It required
some jiggery-pokery to make it do that,
switching character sets two-thirds of
the way down the screen, making use
of careful timing.” He adds that it was
also a pain working with paged memory
on the Game Boy, where you were
constantly having to move memory

in and out of usable space: “It could
get quite difficult when you needed
something to be available in different
areas but you were using a different

bit of paged memory. There was a lot
of juggling involved to get everything
working in Monster Max, because you
didn't want to be paging memory in and
out when you were in a room — it would
have slowed things down. That said, at
least | had the memory, which | didn’t
on the Spectrum, although it would
have been nice to have also had a bit

of colour!”

Still, in having to create a new engine,
Jon was able to incorporate ideas that
took the kind of isometric adventures
he'd previously created to a new level.
“| wanted rooms to be bigger than the
screen, to manage rooms with different
floor levels, and to have a new way of
handling tools,” he says. On that last
point, he explains Batman and Head
Over Heels had characters where
abilities were essentially ‘removed’

IN THE
HNOUW

» PUBLISHER: TITUS

» DEVELOPER: RARE

» RELEASED: 1994

» PLATFORM: GAME BOY

» GENRE: ISOMETRIC
ADVENTURE

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE.

P and earned back during play,
whereupon they remained permanent.
With Monster Max, he thought it would
be interesting to force you to regularly
let go of said abilities (jumping; ducking;
a bag for collecting items; and many
more) restricting the number you could
use at once: “Two went nicely with the
two main buttons on the Game Boy,
although it did complicate the design.

It was hard work ensuring you could
always access the right tool, and to not
create an arrangement of rooms where
you'd accidentally put a tool down in the
wrong position and not be able to get
back to it. | had to be extremely careful
with that, but | don’t think | made any
errors in the end.”

In terms of the game’s theme,
Bernie recalls the character of Monster
Max was a case of the right place at
the right time: “Jon and | hadn't worked
together for a couple of years, and I'd
reverted back to the highly colourful
‘pen to paper’ artwork | was used to.
When Jon phoned and said we were
going to make a game for the Game
Boy, the guitar-playing half-skeleton/half-
reptile Max was the latest creation | had
to hand, although the small screen size
meant the art was slightly compromised
by the need to keep the visual clarity
we were known for.”

Otherwise, Bernie was again given
the freedom to run riot — as he puts it,
“drawing whatever looked good, with
Jon then creating a narrative out of the
images | gave him”. Despite the size of
the game, there was very little planning,
with the pair pretty much making things
up as they went along. “We'd have
certain sizes of objects that we'd give
nicknames to, such as ‘sweets’ and
‘blocks’, and I'd ask Bernie for ‘five
more sweets’, he'd send ten, I'd chuck
five away and see what was left,”
remembers Jon. “If they didn't work,
I'd ask for more. Or sometimes Bernie
would just send loads of stuff I’d think
was brilliant and didn’t know what to
cut out.” He notes the pair once more
gained a reputation for having bizarre
imaginations, primarily because objects
were out of scale: “People said it was
bizarre, but | just thought it was fun and
we got better pictures in our games.
There's a teapot in Batman that's half
his size, but if it had been to scale, it
would have been three pixels wide and
looked like nothing at all. Instead, we
got a beautiful teapot, and | carried on
that line of thinking in Monster Max."

Despite the ad-hoc nature of
Monster Max's creation, Jon did carve
out one very important rule to follow:
“There was the idea there’d be three
worlds on each level, but you'd only
have to complete two to go up a

» The lift guy charges for access to
ea SA ce TCM EU
completing missions). And, yes, you can
blow him up using bombs.

level. It’s always possible you'll create
something someone can't do, and it's
good to say there's an alternative.”

This all arose due to an assortment of
people getting stuck fairly early on in
Batman, and giving up despite having
not experienced the majority of the
game. “| was determined that would
never happen again,” confirms Jon. This
revised structure in combination with a
password system also dovetailed nicely
with the idea of mobile play: “With the
Game Boy, it might be something you'd
use on the move, but Head Over Heels
had to be completed in one go if you
wanted to see the end. | liked the idea
of a game being segmented into small
chunks, where you could think ‘I’ve
done that bit’ and could move on.”

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS

MATCH DAY
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 1984

BATMAN

SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 1986

HEAD OVER

HEELS cricturen)
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 1987

hen we ask about specific
memorable elements of
Monster Max, though, it
appears Jon himself has
moved on - or at least his memory
now has. “When | first started making
games, | was always of the opinion
one of the greatest tools | could have
would be an anti-memory pill. It would
have wiped my memory of a game,

so | could play it like anyone else, and
not someone who knew it inside out.

| could then really hone it,” he says.
“Of course, that wasn't available, but |
discovered by trial and error that if you
wait for ten or 12 years, that all sort of
happens by itself. So | did go back and
get that experience with Monster Max,
playing it as if it was someone else’s

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» That weird little bipedal chap can

sprint pretty quickly, and those bullet
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JON
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» When you first collect an ite!
helpfully tells you what it’s for.

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game, and | thought it was quite fun.
Unfortunately, that was about ten years
ago, and so I've more or less forgotten
it again!”

Jon does at least recall that what you
saw on the screen was entirely what
he planned to put there, and that there's
no kind of ‘director's cut’ waiting in
the wings, on some lost development
rig in a dusty cupboard: “When | was
making a world in Monster Max, | was
always trying it out room-by-room, and if
| didn't like how something felt, it would
be out.” In a sense, this was also the
first of Jon's isometric titles that was
extremely reliant on his own tastes, given
that wider playtesting was significantly
harder than it had been on the Spectrum.
“Previously, I'd had the opportunity to

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watch people play Batman and Head
Over Heels. | found it very valuable to
look over their shoulders as they played,
and quite a few rooms were changed
through how people were reacting and
the problems they were having,” he
explains. “In some cases, it was down
to how rooms were laid out. Because
you don't have perspective, isometric can
be confusing, and so I'd perhaps turn a
room around and have it at a different
angle. With the tiny Game Boy screen, |
could no longer rope in friends, and so all
the testing and changes were down to
me, trying to put myself in the mindset
of someone else. | hope | got it right,
and it felt pretty good when | played it
ten years later. Although | guess that
procedure of waiting ten years to forget
a game so that you can test it isn’t very
useful for a current release!”
Unfortunately, a weirdly lengthy delay
(if not quite a decade) also happened
with Monster Max's actual release. It
reviewed well, with 94 per cent in GB
Action and a whopping 96 per cent in
Super Gamer, which declared it the
“best Game Boy title ever”, but the
game was held back for almost a year,

heavily impacting on sales. “I've got no
idea at all what happened,” says Jon,
sadly. “I'd been working with one of the
Titus bosses — a very bright man — on all
of the language stuff, because he spoke
about six and could program. Everything
seemed to be going ahead fine, with no
trouble. And then after the game was
complete, | had no more contact with
him, and nothing happened for ages. It
was strange after such great reviews.”
Intriguingly, Jon reveals Monster Max
could have found its way to market
in a very different form: “I had the
opportunity — and | would have taken it,
had | known Titus was going to hang
on to the game for a year — to change
the graphics, drop the Monster Max
character, use one of the Mario stable,
and have Nintendo publish it.” Jon says
he doesn't know for sure what changes
to the other graphics Nintendo would
have demanded, but he imagines it
would probably have been a lot, and
that was what put him off at the time:
“You get to that stage where you
think ‘we've finished it now’, and /
any major changes would just
feel like starting again. | know

THE MAKING OF: MONSTER MAX

Shigeru Miyamoto played the game, and
that there are aspects of things that he
didn't like. | suspect whatever changes
he would have wanted would have
required rejigging all of the puzzles.”

lt wasn't to be, but Jon says
he's still proud of the game itself
and the following it retains today,
if understandably disappointed its
commercial success didn't match the
critical acclaim. And Bernie, too, is
delighted people are still talking about
Monster Max. “It's good to hear classic
games still have appeal. It's a lot of
work making a game, and it sometimes
seems disproportionate to the time
someone might spend playing. But as an
artist, you are in the business of creating
a perfect moment. Layers of detail are
designed to happen simultaneously,
and knowing that people have i
enjoyed the results of our LA a
work makes it all
worthwhile.” A

EE:

Super Mario Land 2:
Six Golden Coins

GAME BOY » 1992 » NINTENDO R&D 1
What was your first gig? A lot of my friends say Blink 182,
S Club 7, or even Busted. I'm a little conflicted on my
answer; | usually say Iron Maiden (| was a 14-year-old
metalhead), but it’s technically Jools Holland circa 1997,
though | sure as hell wasn't paying attention, | was hiding in a
tent playing Super Mario Land 2 much to my parents’ bewilderment.

It was a good show, don’t get me wrong — the saxophone player climbed
up into the stage’s rigging for his solo... | at least caught that bit — it's just
playing Mario Land 2 was the better experience of that night. It’s a testament
to Nintendo's development team that it managed to condense the Mario
experience down to a tiny green screen, and not lose a single bit of lustre.

It's a little cut-down compared to, say, Super Mario Bros 3, but | actually
think the Game Boy Mario Land games are better. There’s no faff like holding
onto a power-up or anything like that, what you see is what you get. The
world design is fantastic, too, mostly thanks to its non-linearity. You can tackle
whatever world you want to in any order, and if you run into a level that’s too
hard, you can just back out and try another world.

The levels look great, too. My favourites are from Mario Zone, which
culminates in a final Lego-themed stage and a Three Little Pigs boss fight —
why they're hanging around in a clockwork Mario’s head is anyone's guess.

So if you haven't played Super Mario Land 2, you're missing a trick. Grab

|| il fl || i a Game Boy and lose yourself. Just don’t crack it out at your next concert;
you'll end up missing the entire thing.

GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 85

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e all know that it’s possible to
extract amazing performance from
a dated gaming platform - with
clever programming and perhaps a
little hardware help, minor miracles are possible.
But sometimes you just have to accept that
more power is the answer, as a new hardware
platform can bring wholly new possibilities to a
game or genre, whether that’s with new graphical
techniques or through sheer computational power.
When Contra Ill: The Alien Wars hit the SNES in
1992, there was no doubt that this was one of
those instances, as the game featured impressive
setpieces and high-intensity action that just
wouldn't have been possible on older machines.
Contra was converted to a variety of platforms
following its arcade debut and found success on
the NES, but Nintendo's 8-bit platform wasn’t
especially well suited to the game’s action.
Konami's coders had to work to minimise sprite
flickering in both Contra and Super C, and
slowdown ultimately blighted Contra Force. But
with the greater power of the SNES, Contra Ill was
able to increase the carnage. Sprites stayed intact
as bullets flew around the screen and enemies
swarmed the stage, and the pace remained pretty
consistent, save for during crazy special effects
such as the transparent bomb blasts. Part of that
is down to improved hardware, but it’s important
to note the stellar work done by programmers
Mitsuru Yaida and Hideyuki Suginami in making
efficient use of the SNES CPU. Their skills enabled
the sorts of arcing flames and crazy multi-sprite
bosses that made Contra III look more like an
arcade game than anything else.
Importantly, none of the signature features
of previous games were sacrificed in order >

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 87

You'll need some help to beat back the alien hoards, and these weapons
and power-ups prove to be just what you need

CRUSH GUN

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leave lingering explosions, causing extra
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alam late Meme

: ie a

SPREAD GUN

The classic is back, and we'll always
welcome it. Why limit yourself to a single
line of destructive fire when you can spread
the damage over a wider area?

LASER GUN

MT CRMs) Cea Ae ee OR rele Lg
ATM an Cmca MTom
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work of tough bosses.

HOMING GUN

Accurate aiming is for chumps and
FS Tol le MRT ela OWA Tel Tal elt
time with these homing missiles will tell
NielU RM Mele S-1a lem (eM le) ee

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oi pemendt

FLAMETHROWER

The flamethrower suffers from a limited
range, but it destroys some enemy
projectiles and whips around as you turn,
oN Ta eRe al om Lum ae

BARRIER

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run around at leisure, unimpeded by enemy
eee eae MOLL eRe LM (1Re[
of expiring, so pay attention!

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these, but picking up more gives
you extra opportunities to clear

up a screen full'of enemies at
PUR Cet moa Mole

P to achieve this excellence. A full selection
of weapons was available, with the time-
tested laser and spread guns joined by new
additions like the homing gun, and co-op play
was supported throughout the game. But
what's most impressive is that the technical
leap forward is matched by the inventive
level design. The first stage is familiar Contra
territory, a side-scrolling run through a
decaying city, complete with a tank to ride and
perilous fire traps. But the second stage rams
home how all of the technical improvements
were in service of the game design, as the
overhead stage is now a fully rotating Mode 7
affair, enabling a nonlinear maze structure in
which you have to seek out and destroy set
targets before you can move on to the boss.
During a co-op game, both players can even
explore the overhead stage independently as
the game employs a split-screen setup.

s you go on, the game never lets

up with the inventive scenarios —

the third stage sees you fighting

minibosses while hanging from rails
and walls, and the fourth starts with a high-
speed jet bike chase before you take to the air.
The fifth stage returns to the overhead view
and the final stage takes you inside the alien
lair, with a boss rush to conclude the game.
And Contra Iil's most impressive scenes were
reserved for the boss fights, ranging from a
huge skeletal robot crashing through the wall to
a dangerous aerial battle where your character
is hanging from moving missiles. We're still
impressed by the second stage boss, a spider-
like flying robot that manages to create the
illusion of two rotating graphics layers using
sprites with 32 predrawn rotations.

All of this was conveyed with dramatic

audiovisual impact, as the SNES really allowed
the team to go to town on making Contra III

» For the most part, the final stage is a eS
PCC UUs. OLS POTN aC}

in CRT Nia cle Tom nae} TTT UV,
| RSA Tiaten oy (ol oe) just like in the action films,

the most impressive game in the series.
With 256 colours to play with at any

time, lead designer and game director
Nobuya Nakazato was able to convey a
greater sense of detail in the sprites and
backgrounds. Masayuki Saruta is credited
with drawing the player characters, and

as well as featuring more detail they

have a range of additional animations,
from climbing along walls and overhead
bars to riding vehicles. Special effects

are used liberally, too, with the SNES’s
mosaic effect used to convey damage on
bosses rather than the traditional method
of flashing different colours or blinking

the sprite. The music was composed by
Miki Higashino, Masanori Adachi, Tappi
lwase and Aki Hata, working to the brief of
providing an impressive style reminiscent
of Hollywood action movies. They
succeeded spectacularly, with the orchestral
parts particularly boosted by the SNES’s
unrivalled ability to utilise sampled audio.
Each stage has a unique musical signature —
the booming bass of the first stage’s drums
perfectly convey the gravity of the alien
invasion, whereas the fourth stage has a
much brighter, more energetic theme that
fits the high speed and blue skies of that
particular stage.

The game arrived in Japan under the
name Contra Spirits in February 1992, and
hit shelves in North America as Contra Ill:
The Alien Wars in early April. These
versions feature only minor differences,
such as the removal of
infinite continues in >

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2 : a ae

—

3 ae
Series regular Nobuya Nakazato talks to us about SN ea EE

j ls : CUTE Wer eNe
Konami's new Contra Anniversary Collection “ee

Pes Oa

Konami's third compilation celebrating its
50th anniversary is dedicated to Contra. It
has several classics, including the arcade
games Contra and Super Contra, the NES
game Super C, the SNES’s Contra Ill: The
Alien Wars and the Mega Drive’s Contra:
Hard Corps. “I have not been directly involved
in the day-to-day development of the Contra
Anniversary Collection, however the team
has been kind enough to keep me regularly
updated and | have given my insight when
needed,” explains Contra III director Nobuya
Nakazato. Konami has taken extra care
with the Contra compilation to ensure that
each player will be able to experience their
favourites in the way they prefer. “Since
both Contra and Probotector are included,
Tao aT Marc Mette

Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra and Contra
Rebirth. Having had such a long relationship
with the series, you’d expect that he was
heavily involved in picking the compilation’s
line-up, but that’s not the case. “As | was not
leading the development of the compilation,
| did not decide which games would be
included. However, I’m very happy with the
line-up the team decided on, as | feel that
Tale URC me Tae
Ter NeM SLL mame eae teel are mT) {
line-up is probably a job Nakazato wouldn't
have relished, due to his outlook on game ©
development. “When | develop games, |
EEN RU Ula Ue een een Tme]s)
with will be the best one yet,” he explains.
ie STULL eo ae NRVC
their favourite game and it varies from player
[Tees -1a Bl) AL MN o-oo Boo OREN eon Mee) ORR O Ce Ulcle
hard fans will be happy to know that for
LM lea aa RM Rei tmel PATT le Lg
support for the Probotector games!”

After Contra Ill, Nakazato went on to direct
(ieee eR eg elle h gels ee ee

(orto

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE |

;_ Contra Ill also made appearances
on portable platforms — but it didn’t
Pale) MU (LU CVA eae ore

| Given that Factor 5 was trying to squeeze an
advanced SNES game into the most limited of
consoles available, it shouldn’t be a surprise that
Contra Ill (Contra Spirits in Japan and Probotector 2
in Europe) isn’t a perfect port. The graphical excess
ETM Tae Tle s-fo eee Mal Lela eee
the jet bike stage have been removed, and there's
no rotation in the overhead stages.

LOTTO CoML @ 1 MU ee OREN TG
the team managed to pull off a credible imitation
NT e eM mel MUM CMe eee are Ca Col
However, there are some things which don’t work
in its favour. It’s not a fast game in the way that
|. Contra titles usually are, and enemies have been

made more resilient to make up for their diminished

| numbers. It’s a good attempt, but not perfect.

Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, or Contra:
|__ Hard Spirits in Japan, was released in 2002 and
R ranks as one of the least faithful SNES conversions
; Yam By SMa Lale [SM Cel Ml MD delLeicle
;__ —for example, graphics were brightened to
| Cena tate) OR elm Ue la ere ela (e a1]
Likewise the smaller viewing area, which is due to
| the console’s 240x160 resolution.

However, this conversion hacks out some pretty
substantial features. It’s no longer possible to
| use bombs, nor can you switch between two held
weapons. Hard mode is gone, and easy mode cuts
off after the fourth stage. But the biggest change
is that the two Mode 7 stages have been cut out of
the game and replaced with a couple of stages from
, Contra: Hard Corps. They're still good, but... why?

| 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOUDIE- ---- ss

would have to wait a little longer, primarily
due to German attitudes towards depictions
of humans engaging in violence — in
keeping with prior games in the series, the
main characters were replaced with robots.
PAL players were finally treated to Super
Probotector: Alien Rebels in November
1992. However, subsequent releases have
seen the Probotector brand and edits
dropped — the original Wii Virtual Console
received Super Probotector, but European
players received Contra Ill via the 3DS and
Wii U Virtual Console services, as well as
the SNES Mini.

any magazines in the UK
jumped straight on the
Japanese version, and came
away impressed. In Mean
Machines, Richard Leadbetter stated that

graphics trick in the book, and added plenty
of new ones” in a 95% review. N-Force
scored the game 92%, noting “it’s the sheer
amount of stuff going on — attacks, bullets
and power-ups zooming in from every
direction — that makes the speed even more
surprising”. In CVG's 91% review, Frank
O'Connor praised the fact that the game’s
use of Mode 7 “isn’t just a gimmick, it’s
an intrinsic part of the gameplay.” Super
Play Gold reviewed the European version
and scored it 90%, concluding that Super

level design

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Konami had “incorporated every Super NES

é OES bosses, Contra Il/includes a wide
fariety of miniboss sleet CLES en Tosa stages.

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Probotector “tops any obvious rivals” but
criticised the length of the game, saying that it
“seems to run out of steam rather too fast.”
Unfortunately, the team behind this
incredible game would not stick together for a
sequel. Programmers Yaida and Suginami went
off to work at Treasure, where they worked on
Gunstar Heroes, and most of the other staff
scattered off to other projects at Konami. By
the time Contra: Hard Corps was developed
for the Mega Drive, Nobuya Nakazato
found himself directing a largely different
development team, though it’s worth noting
that it turned out to be excellent, too. Even if a
sequel had appeared on the SNES, it’s hard to
see how it could have improved things — and
really, the fact that we want more just proves
how good Contra II! was to begin with. So if it’s
been a while since you've experienced it, grab
a friend and revisit a game that delivers that
action movie feel like nothing else of its era. ¥

a |

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dangerous — it can spit up more enemies
and fire a powerful laser.

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front legs, you'll see that the boss has an
obvious red weak spot. Use the platforms to
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weak spot whenever reasonably possible.

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stage, but the boss fight takes place entirely
in the air. Thankfully, you only encounter its
well-protected rear.

The boss is protected by a shield, which has
ERAN R Oleg el e-la 1 RT CR Co) Tae MT t Cela
Destroy those, and then aim for the gigantic
red target — but watch out, as it will start to
target the missiles you're riding.

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‘body’ has a flashing red target where you
would expect to see a head.

First, you'll need to destroy the circular
targets at the end of each of the robot's
Teemu eee OTC lee Tal Tale)
and attempting to land on you. Avoid it, and
fire at the red target when it lands.

& This looks like some sort of creepy,
horrible hive, complete with what appears
to be a clawed tentacle, but is in facta
worm-like second creature.

Aim for the eye in the centre, while avoiding
the worm. Once you’ve hit it enough, the
worm will chase you further and the ground
TUG emt elOM Ott tem OMe lal Tele UT)
Teel TL MULL (1m OL

@ Two robots look suspiciously like they
have wandered in from Snatcher, and
they’re accompanied by a terrifyingly huge
robot friend.

The robots will attack both high and low,
Yoel ale CoM Cal-Me-1areM Oe mene Lec meaT
starts firing, then drop behind it and attack.
Once the big guy shows up, watch out for
the chasing lasers and aim for the head.

This is it - the big bad alien, a living
embodiment of extraterrestrial terror. It
begins as a multi-mouthed monstrosity and
even its brain can put up a fight.

In the first phase, knock out its arms before
firing at its head. During the brain phase,
you choose its attack pattern - memorise
what each does and aim for the brain. And
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rey
IN THE
HNOW

» PUBLISHER:
NINTENDO

» DEVELOPER:
NINTENDO EAD
» RELEASED:

» PLATFORM:
SNES

» GENRE:
PLATFORMER

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Wy, Sa

THE MAKING OF: YOSHI'S ISLAND

Tasked with delivering a successor to Super Mario World, Nintendo's

developers decided to entrust the starring role to a new hero and

knocked it out of the park. Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi
Hino look back on the development of Yoshi's Island

be, |

here’s an enormous burden of the developers explain. “Before Yoshi's Island,
expectation that comes with we'd only created games with Mario as the lead
following up a game like Super character. We felt that changing the lead character
Mario World. Retro Gamer readers would give us a different perspective and different
voted it the greatest game of all time, and many gameplay possibilities, and so we started thinking
would argue that it was as close as you could up a game with Yoshi as the lead.”
get to a perfect game, as it built admirably on That makes sense — but the Mushroom
the already refined Mario platform formula Kingdom is home to many interesting characters,
while adding the benefits of 16-bit technology. It many of whom have also starred in spin-offs.
would be very hard to elaborate on the formula, What made Yoshi the character of choice over
especially given that delays to the Ultra 64 project the likes of Wario, Luigi or Peach? This goes back
meant that Nintendo was still tied to the 16-bit to the creation of the character for Super Mario
SNES. With player expectations guaranteed to World, as we discover. “The idea for Yoshi came
be through the roof, was there even any sense in about because Mr Miyamoto wanted to have
trying to create a traditional Mario sequel? Mario ride a horse. We thought it would be better
It turns out that Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi to have a new character rather than a horse, so Mr
Hino didn’t think so. They were two of the Hino and | went about creating one,” Tezuka tells
directors of Yoshi's Island, alongside fellow us. “Yoshi turned into quite the cute character, and
directors Toshihiko Nakago and Hideki Konno, with we were very interested in creating some kind of
i Shigeru Miyamoto acting as producer. Working spin-off with him; that’s where it all began.”
gp 7 together at Nintendo EAD, this team wanted to This wasn’t Yoshi's first starring role in a game,
a ss take a different approach instead. “We felt we'd of course. Mario’s trusty steed had previously
done everything we wanted to for side-scrolling appeared headlined three games, the puzzle
with Super Mario World, and so wanted to try games Mario & Yoshi and Yoshi’s Cookie and the

creating a platformer with a different angle to it,” Super Scope blaster Yoshi's Safari. But none

» The flutter jump is a useful trick that can often save
Yoshi when a regular jump might see him plummet.

of these were platform games, and Yoshi's only
appearance in a platform game so far had been
as a sub-character. So while Yoshi had certain
established abilities such as his ability to grab
enemies with his tongue and eat them, the team
had a great deal of freedom to decide on new
abilities and a new style of play that would provide
a clear break from traditional Mario games.

hat said, it wasn’t easy for the team
to come up with these new and
interesting ideas - according to Hino,
such things were quickly seized upon
when they did arrive. “| remember Mr Tezuka
coming in suddenly one morning and dropping
an idea on us,” he says. “The development team
were hungry for the seeds of an idea and so we
ran with it; we discussed them over and over
and polished them into something we could
implement in game.” Abilities that Yoshi gained
in Yoshi's Island include the ‘flutter jump’ - an
extended jump where the dinosaur struggles
against gravity in a cartoonish fashion — as well
as the ‘ground pound’ jumping attack that could
be used to smash stakes into the floor, something
Mario would later adopt. Yoshi also gained
a variety of possible vehicle transformations

AY, BEFORE YOU DIE)

including helicopters, cars and submarines, but
these could only be used in certain places.

However, the ability that most closely tied into
Yoshi's existing skillset was his unique capability
to create eggs. As in Super Mario World, Yoshi
could use his tongue to eat enemies and then
spit them back out at other enemies
as an attack. However, by pushing
the down button with an enemy
in Yoshi’s mouth, the player
could have Yoshi lay an egg.
Instead of containing items
or more Yoshis, as they
did in the likes of Super
Mario World, eggs could
be thrown, rebounding off
walls, breaking through
barriers, collecting objects and
smashing enemies.

“We wanted to include
egg-throwing as throwing actions
weren't something that had appeared
much in Mario games,” Tezuka tells us.
“Having said that, though, giving users the ability
to simultaneously control both Yoshi’s movement
and the direction they throw eggs in proved
challenging and gave us quite the headache!”
However, it proved to be a crucial element of

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important to find a way to transform back —you
ene (le EMAIL

the game. “Having said that, though, fusing this
egg-throwing mechanic into a platformer helped
us invent ideas that hadn't been possible until that
point,” Hino points out. “It was a real boon for
ideas for the game!”
While the egg-throwing mechanic would be
easy to implement in modern games
thanks to the prevalence of dual
analogue sticks, achieving it in
Yoshi's Island required some
ingenuity. The development
team managed to hit upon
an elegant solution that
managed to squeeze the
whole process into two
button presses. By hitting the
A button, the player would
reveal an aiming reticule that
moved back and forth along an
arc in front of Yoshi - while still
allowing him to run and jump freely.
Hitting the A button again would cause
Yoshi to throw an egg in the direction he was
currently aiming for. It was the trickiest of Yoshi's
skills to get to grips with as a player, but it gave the
game a unique feeling amongst platform games.
One of the other things the new star allowed
the Nintendo EAD team to do was make an

adjustment to the difficulty of the game. “Unlike
the Mario series, we tried to give the gameplay a
more gentle and relaxed pacing, as opposed to
turning it into a platformer that requires players to
master tricky techniques,” explains Tezuka. “So,
for example, there’s no time limit on the stages,
and it’s a little easier to control Yoshi’s jumps as he
flutter jumps unlike Mario. As we were adding in
these little adjustments, we came up with the idea
of having some exploration elements as part of the
gameplay and slowly the game took shape.”

[= = ometimes the desire to provide

exploration elements and a relaxed

ral | game experience were conflicting
ME sgoals, as was the case when deciding

on a progression system. Super Mario Bros 3

and Super Mario World had both used maps that

allowed the player to select the next stage. Why

did the team choose to return to linear progression

for Yoshi's Island? “We looked at many different

map styles for this game. Seeing as we had

already used a board game-style map system in

Super Mario World, we settled on a linear path

as a way of returning to our beginnings,” Tezuka

replies. “The map used in Super Mario World

and other titles gives users the option to choose

the level of difficulty when there’s abranchin =»

THE MAKING OF: YOSHI'S ISLAND

i os
al a Ll

SUPER MARIO

WORLD cricturep)
SYSTEM: SNES
YEAR: 1990

SUPER MARIO KART
SYSTEM: SNES
YEAR: 1992

SUPER MARIO 64
SYSTEM: Né4
YEAR: 1996

YOSHI*S CHDISTOR

» Get hit and Baby Mario will float off in a bubble — recover him in
the time limit or the Magikoopas will get him.

eer cor igh gr ier oq

ca i

» the path,” adds Hino. “With Yoshi's Island, we
designed the game so that players can play the
courses over again with different objectives so
they can get better. So, with that in mind, rather
than users going through the game selecting what
level of difficulty they want to play, as done with
the board game-style maps, our intention was to
make it possible for users to progress through the
game by setting their own goals.”

Ms well as the ability to set your own
level of challenge, one of the key
aspects of the game’s gentle pacing
was the ability for the player to get hit
without being in too much danger. In the Mario
games, the player was only ever a couple of hits
away from losing a life, with finite opportunities to
grab power-ups in order to prevent that outcome.
In Yoshi's Island, getting hit would cause Yoshi
to lose his cargo, and the player had a short
amount of time to recover it — but if they did so
successfully that time limit would reset, meaning
that it was possible to take an unlimited number
of hits per stage. And in a surprising role reversal,
that cargo was Baby Mario.

“| don’t think we started out with the intention
of having the roles reversed,” reveals Hino.

“Once we decided to make Yoshi the lead, we
thought he could have something ride on his
back and so decided Yoshi's mission would be to
carry something through the game. We wanted
to add something extra to the traditional side-
scrolling gameplay of having players just proceed
to the right to reach a goal, and so having Yoshi
need to carry something across the map was a
good fit.” That makes sense given Yoshi's original
role as a mount for a certain plucky plumber, but
why did Mario need to be a baby? “We decided to
have Yoshi carry Mario because that’s what he’s
always done, but we made Mario into a baby as it
wouldn't make sense for the game if Mario could
walk around by himself,” Hino explains. “This
setup was also a big help for writing the story for
the game.”

That story started with a stork attempting to
deliver Baby Mario and Luigi to their parents, only
to be attacked by Bowser’s henchman Kamek, a
Magikoopa who could foresee the great problems
that these brothers would cause for his boss.
While he succeeded in kidnapping the Baby

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Luigi, Baby Mario was lost in the confusion and
fell to Yoshi's Island. With the instinctive bond
that brothers have, Baby Mario could sense his
brother's location, and the Yoshis decided to take
him to rescue Baby Luigi and reunite them both
with their parents. And for those of you unfamiliar
with the game, that plural is no typo. “One of the
ideas that came out while we were creating the
story, and which I’m particularly taken with, is that
there are many different Yoshis in the game,” says
Tezuka. “Normally, the lead character is a singular
character in the game world, so personally
| thought the idea of having different Yoshis
working together and taking turns to carry Baby
Mario through the game was really interesting.”
This storybook presentation plays well with
the game’s aesthetic — it sports a hand-drawn,
colouring book style with crayon backgrounds.
While this wasn’t the plan from the start, the idea
of being visually unique was one of the team’s
aims. “We spent a lot of time trying to come up
with a new and different look for the game. We
tried out many ideas and the most interesting was
one | drew as a last-ditch attempt: a cloud that
had this very rough scribbled look to it,” explains

HE MAKING OF: YOSHI'S ISLAND

Hino. “Everyone agreed it was

perfect and so we decided

to go ahead with giving the game a hand-drawn
look. At the time, there were a lot of other beautiful
graphics out there, and we wanted to differentiate
our title from these. | also watched a lot of
children’s TV shows as well for inspiration.”

That wasn’t the only reason that the Nintendo
EAD team ultimately chose to use a deliberately
low-tech look. “At the time, our company was
abuzz with talk of the graphics used in Rare’s
Donkey Kong Country. There was definitely
a feeling that those sorts of visuals might go
on to become the mainstream. | wanted us to
come at things from a different angle,” says
Tezuka. “Although there were some people in the
company who were expecting us to follow Donkey
Kong Country, a decision was taken that we should
put our weight behind a completely different sort
of visual look,” adds Hino. “It was around about
the time that we decided on that direction that Mr
Hisashi Nogami joined the company as a designer.
As we were competing together and having fun
coming up with different designs, we slowly
settled on the feel we wanted the visuals to >

» Although Yoshi's Island has a gentler pace, there are still
challenges like tricky moving platform paths,

could draw 99

Takashi Tezuka

have.” In a 2018 interview with Kotaku, Nogami
mentioned the game’s hand-drawn look was
actually achieved quite literally — images were
drawn by hand, scanned and recreated as pixel art

f course, the ironic thing is that
despite that rejection of Donkey Kong
Country's look, Yoshi's Island was a
game that did things that few other
SNES games could. It’s something that isn’t lost
on the developers. " Yoshi's Island has this very
warm and friendly feel to it, but a lot of technical
effort went into making the game,” they note. “It’s
actually one of the later SNES games, so [it] makes
use of all the developmental know-how we’d built
up to that point, as well as what was considered
the latest in technology with the Super FX 2 chip.”
The use of the enhancement chip is a curious
one, and we were interested to know where the
decision to use it came about. “In principle, we
look at what the software and hardware can do
and look at what sorts of visuals or gameplay we
can create with that technology. It was mentioned
one day that the Super FX 2 technology was
available, and a suggestion was made about using
it,” explain the developers. “We were very excited
and decided to make use of it for two reasons: the
first was that as software developers we wanted

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to use all new technology we could, and the other
point was that this technology offered further
gameplay and visual possibilities (eg, object
(sprite) rotation and a large increase in the number
of screen colours possible).”
What was so interesting about the use of the
Super FX 2 chip? That would be the
way it was deployed - the original
chip, designed by the UK team
at Argonaut, had been used to
power the polygonal graphics
of Starwing. All of the
subsequent Super FX games,
like Stunt Race FX and
Vortex, had been 3D games
too. Few gamers would have
guessed that the first outing of
the updated version would be
in a 2D game, but it proved key
to some of the most impressive
visual effects in Yoshi's Island.
Some of those were actually polygonal
special effects, such as falling walls and rolling
platforms. But the Super FX 2 was primarily
used here for manipulating 2D sprites, a
technique that Nintendo called ‘Morphmation’
in advertising. As well as adding extra layers
of parallax scrolling, the chip allowed the

console to handle multiple rotating sprites on the
screen, perform some psychedelic background
warping and even squash and stretch sprites.
These were most frequently used in the game’s
boss battles, which routinely featured some
absolutely colossal sprites.
Koji Kondo was behind the game's
sound and music, and delivered
another set of memorable themes.
Although still present, there was
less focus on the bongos and
other additional percussion
that had marked Yoshi's
* — presence in Super Mario
World, and there were some
pretty bold musical choices
— most notably the music
box tune that played during
the game's intro sequence. Of
course, the most memorable
sound in the game was that of the
crying Baby Mario, which triggered
whenever he was separated from his dinosaur
guardian — we'd avoid getting hit just to make
sure that we didn’t hear it. The Japan-only
official soundtrack CD is now a prized item
in its own right, with used copies selling
for extraordinary prices.

DISTRACTIONS

Yoshi's Island has six bonus games and four mini battles — here’s the complete guide to them

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Yoshi's Island was released in August 1995 in
Japan, and releases in North America and Europe
followed in October 1995. The game received
universal acclaim upon its release. Nintendo
Magazine System gave it 97%, with Simon Clays
commenting that it was “about the best game
I've ever had the pleasure to play,” with his only
complaint being that the graphics were “slightly
immature”. Tony Mott awarded the game 94%
for Super Play and praised it for its variety, noting
that “You never know what's just around each
corner, but you know that it’ll be something worth
seeing.” However, he felt that the game’s linear
progression was disappointing by comparison
to Super Mario World’s wealth of secret exits
and stages. Edge’s review scored the game
9/10, crediting the Super FX2 chip with “some
wonderfully inventive touches which make each
new level a reward to the player.”

The game was later converted to Game Boy
Advance as Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island,
and that version has since been made available
for 3DS and Wii U. Of course, despite Yoshi's solo
success Mario was soon back on top. Although
the developers felt that they'd pushed Mario to his
2D limit, new hardware meant that Nintendo had
already figured out what to do with its headline
star. Less than a year later, Mario returned in the
groundbreaking Super Mario 64, which many of
the Yoshi's Island staff also worked on. But as a
swan song for an era in which 2D gaming was
still the primary concern of the world’s most
prominent game developers, you couldn't ask
for much better than Yoshi's Island. The game
established Yoshi as a platform star in his own

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THE MAKING OF: YOSHI’S ISLAND

oe
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»You're not going to get past the massive
Nep-Enut by jumping, soit's best to feed him an egg.

right and is still considered to be one of the
greatest of all time, frequently showing up in lists
of the best games ever, including Games™’s top
100 in 2010 and our own readers’ top 150 in 2015.

ith that in mind, we'll leave the last

word to the developers — why do they

think that the game is still so beloved

by players? “| think maybe it has
something to do with the appeal of the gameplay;
Yoshi offers this unique ability to gobble up
enemies, turn them into eggs, and then throw
those eggs,” says Tezuka. “For the Yoshi series,
we wanted to convey Yoshi's warmth of character.
The adorable voice and our leaning towards
hand-made visuals has all added up to create the
character's uniqueness, and | think it's maybe
these things that players are drawn to.”

“It wasn’t easy creating Yoshi or Yoshi's Island,”
says Hino. “We competed in the team to see what
were the most amusing or fun things we could
draw, and laughed together as we thought up
strange enemies and level features, knowing we
had a bit more freedom to do so because it wasn’t
a Mario game. Even the programmers jumped
on board and worked really hard to achieve our
ideas. | think the fondness people have for the
character and the game is because we managed
to give form to all this passion we had. Along time |
has passed since then, but even now designers
continue to develop Yoshi with all kinds of |
different interpretations, such as handicrafts,
worlds made of yarn and so on. I'm really iF

happy to see people still continuing to enjoy 1

playing with Yoshi.”

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 99

GAME CHANGERS

SUPER MARIO KART

RELEASED: 1992 PUBLISHER: NINTENDO DEVELOPER: NINTENDO EAD SYSTEM: SNES

The SNES’ most famous racer wasn’t meant to be a Mario game
when it was first being developed, but when the programmers
decided to shift their efforts to a Mario Kart game, they never knew
they'd change gaming forever

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uper Mario Kart is widely acknowledged as the game

that started an entire genre — without it, we wouldn't

have the mascot kart racing games we know and

love today. As with the majority of other Nintendo games,
Super Mario Kart was a trailblazer — a game that inspired many
clones and imitators, but no one could live up to the incredible
formula that Nintendo worked into the game, creating something
that was incredibly accessible to players of all ages, but still incredibly
deep, once you lifted the hood and understood how the game
actually worked.

Less than two years after Super Mario Kart's release, long-time
Mario rival Sonic released his own kart game (Sonic Drift), followed
by Ubisoft's Street Racer on the SNES in 1994. The impact of the
game's release was tangible on the whole industry — it created

100 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

the genre, that’s a given, but it also proved that games and their
characters were never limited to just one game style. Super Mario
Kart was the first time we saw Mario characters outside a platform
game setting, and their collective transition to this new realm was
groundbreaking at the time.

But the game didn’t start development as a game that would
star Mario — rather, it was originally planned as a multiplayer sequel
to F-Zero. The karts were populated with a generic man in overalls
as placeholder art. When the team at Nintendo EAD was designing
the sprites, they collectively decided that a character in a kart should
be three ‘heads’ high — that way, you identify each racer and their
kart easily enough, without too much strain. It was only about three
months into development that Nintendo decided to make the whole
game a Mario-focused racer.

Fy | r

GAME CHANGERS: SUPER MARIO KART

THE ANATOMY OF SUPER MARIO KART

SUPER MARIO KART HAS GONE ON TO INSPIRE A SLEW OF OTHER GAMES, BUT WHAT CAME TO INSPIRE THE NINTENDO
DEVS BEHIND THE KART RACER IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The general idea with the development of Super Mario Kart was
to create a game that directly contrasted with the aforementioned
SNES launch title F-Zero — a single-player only game with intricate
tracks and elaborate mechanics. That way, the Nintendo console
would have something for the lone-wolf racers out there, and
something for the families and multiplayer-focused groups of
gamers, too.

It was the multiplayer functionality of the game that got most
people's attention when the game launched - it was a true party
game on the home consoles, and one of the first to really hit

The game was as pick-up-
and-play as you could get — it
was easy to learn, difficult

to master

that friendly/competitive nail on the head. This gameplay was
no accident: Nintendo and Miyamoto actively set out to make a
game capable of displaying two players on the same game screen
simultaneously — something evident in the way single-player games
are still split across the screen horizontally.

Because of the multiplayer focus, tracks and levels couldn't
be as complex as the zones you'd find in F-Zero, but that actually
ended up working in Mario Kart's favour: the simplicity of the tracks
meant the game was as pick-up-and-play as you could get — easy
to learn, difficult to master. But within that simple formula, there
are smaller ways Nintendo plays with the layout: between small
shortcuts, zany power-ups and track-based boosts, very few races
played out the same. At first look, each track was just a circuit with
a finish line, but the more you play, the more you understand how
the visual language of the track is actually pointing you at a
certain shortcut or hidden feature. This played into the
longevity of the game, and is largely the reason you
still see tournaments of players competing in the
game’s time trial mode.

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The game also made the most of Nintendo's internally-developed
Mode 7 texture wrapping — a technical marvel that made Super
Mario Kart one of the best-looking games on the SNES (by a long
way). Mode 7 allowed developers to select planes that were being
worked on and rotate them freely, basically making 3D
sprites in 2D software (or, at least, giving that illusion). To

Patol that end, Super Mario Kart introduced the DSP-1 Sa
chip — that’s Digital Signal Processor — into
the cartridge, which allowed easier and wz
quicker 3D mathematics from the
game's engine, courtesy of floating point
calculations. The implementation of this cS

chip paved the way for the rest of the SNES’
lifespan: it became the most popular chip in SNES
cartridges from then on.
Super Mario Kart has a place in many people's hearts
because of the nostalgia that it evokes. It also pulls on something
deeper — the idea that this game was mostly enjoyed by groups of
people; friends and family. It's a game that — to some circles — is
as important socially as it is culturally.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 101

INSPIRED BY
MARIO KART

Super Mario Kart was the first kart game to hit our consoles,
but it wasn’t the last. The game's release heralded the start of
a new genre, and other developers vied for their chances on
kart-racing throne

The final Crash game by Naughty Dog was designed with the same focus on All-Stars Racing doesn't reinvent the wheel, but everything it does, it does
replayability and metagame as Crash 3: Warped. Developers slotted design pillars — well. Track design is multi-faceted and entertaining, complex but not confusing,
into the kart-racing genre instead. It was a well-regarded Mario Kart clone and and represents the height of what a kart racer can do. A sequel, Sonic & All-Stars
was recently remade along with its two sequels. Racing Transformed arrived in 2012 and added impressive evolving tracks.

102 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

LAP 1/3
CURRENT OBJECTIVE @

Despite the lack of involvement from Trey Parker and Matt Stone (and their
criticism of the South Park games that Acclaim published), we had a soft spot for
South Park Rally. It was aclunky and floaty mess, but as a mascot kart racer, it
was fun, fast, full of fan service and had a multiplayer that actually worked.

LittleBigPlanet Karting felt more like a game from the parent series than a pure
kart game, as the main reason for its release was to get players making their own
tracks, based on a template laid out in it, and in ModNation Racers before. The
game never felt like a true craft-em-up, nor a true kart racer.

Despite the well-animated characters, vibrant colour palette and fast-action
racing, Diddy Kong Racing's multiplayer modes and the replay value were poor. The
game had an excellent Adventure mode and excelled when it came to the subtlety in
the mechanics - more so than its Nintendo predecessor, Mario Kart 64.

Pl ma y

GAME CHANGERS: SUPER MARIO KART

Chocobo Racing is the closest you're going to get to a Final Fantasy kart game,
compiling characters, locations and items from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy VIII.
SquareSoft attempted to cash-in on the kart craze that permeated the industry:
tracks were lazy, controls loose and unsatisfying, and it was very, very easy.

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The bright, colourful and clean graphical presentation of the first Lego
racing game was impressive, as were the world design and track design, but
the rudimentary physics engine in the game was where it shone: the car would
handle differently, making for a game that was ostensibly fun and experimental.

Mi haiti Cais A

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Released on the Game Gear, Sonic Drift was a lazy and cynical cash-in on
Mario Kart - a game that didn’t seem to understand what made Super Mario Kart
so successful. Few options, four playable racers and bland track designs meant
Sonic Driftnever really had a chance at competing with Super Mario Kart.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 103

Gamer looks behind the scenes of
reloaded cult SNES shooter Wild Guns

hose of you of a certain age may recall
the old animatronic Western-themed
shooting galleries found at amusement
parks in the Eighties and early nineties.
Packed with intricately arranged Americana, primed to
react in various amusing ways when you hit them with
your imaginary Winchester ‘73, they were so densely
packed with stuff to shoot at it boggled the mind. Wild

Guns is a bit like that, except with cyborg gunslingers IN THE
instead of Uncle Zeke in his rocking chair with a jug | N 0 U UJ
of moonshine. Set in an alternative steampunk Wild
West of neon hoardings and huge mecha bosses, it's » PUBLISHER:
a lightgun game without lightguns, evoking arcade NATSUME/TITUS (EU)
shooters like Cabal and its semi-sequel Blood Bros.. » DEVELOPER:
Packed with impressive anime-style graphics and NATSUME
imaginative character and boss design, the game » RELEASED: 1994
bem peta SU sc ae esr introduced us to grizzled bounty hunter Clint and plucky » PLATFORM: SNES
; saloon girl Annie, battling their way through hordes of » GENRE: ACTION

metallic cowboys in an attempt to bring down the gang
that killed Annie's parents. And for our money, it’s the
finest game of its type on the Super Nintendo console,
and quite possibly, any other platform too.

Wild Guns was developed by Japanese software
studio Natsume, probably best known in the West
as the publisher of the Harvest Moon farming RPG

104 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Pacer sens eae

“We felt that the game wouldn't be flashy
enough with only the Western setting”

McRae Oye) bartenders.

Toshiyasu Miyabe

franchise. The bulk of the project was created by a
small three-man team, game designer and graphic
artist Shunichi Taniguchi, programmer Toshiyasu
Miyabe, and musician and sound designer Hiroyuki
lwatsuki. It was the result of a request from Natsume
for an original game that could be completed quickly
and cheaply. The development time for the game was
a surprisingly short five months.

“At the time, Taniguchi-san liked the arcade game
Dynamite Duke and | was a big fan of the arcade game
[and the similarly Western-themed] Blood Bros.,”
remembers Miyabe. “So we thought about making a
similar pseudo-3D shooting game. Since it's a shooting
game that uses guns, the Wild West setting was only
natural. However, we also felt that the game wouldn't
be flashy enough with only the Western setting,
so we added the sci-fi elements.” Adding futuristic
elements, inspired in part by the manga Cobra, turned
Wild Guns into something quite unique, giving it the
feel of something akin to a cross between the old Wild
Wild West TV show and the Saturday morning anime
Battle Of The Planets. Throw in an epic Morricone-style
soundtrack, including a riff cheekily lifted straight from
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and it’s fair to say
the team ended up with something rather special.

Wild Guns appeared relatively late in the life of
the SNES console, debuting in 1994 in Japan, North
America a year later, and only making it to European
stores in 1996. When work began, the trio had recently
completed an update of Taito's The Nnja Warriors for
the SNES, and were keen to continue on the platform,
despite the onset of the new generation of gaming
machines including the upcoming PlayStation. “We

had experience working on the SNES and were all
set with the development environment and tools,”
explains Miyabe. “We really wanted to try and master
development on the SNES rather than spreading out
our resources learning a new system.”

lot of the development time was
devoted to fine-tuning the controls. The
playable characters, Clint and Annie, were
named after a suggestion from Natsume’s
American office, no doubt inspired by legendary
sharpshooter Annie Oakley and a certain low plains
drifter. Originally each character's gunsight was locked
horizontally, with the player only being able to move it
up and down and by moving their onscreen avatar left
or right. After this version proved understandably >

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 105

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106 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

> difficult to play, the control system was switched
to allow independent movement of the crosshair in
relation to Clint or Annie. “Coming up with a good
control method using the buttons of the SNES was
tough,” admits Miyabe. But what resulted was a
flexible system, using only three buttons, allowing Clint
and Annie to jump and roll their way out of danger,
shoot, lasso and freeze enemies (by double tapping
the fire button), and trigger a screen-clearing dynamite
blast when things got a bit hairy. The lasso dynamic
turned out to be particularly useful in two-player

co-op sessions, allowing one player to momentarily
stun enemies and even bosses while the other
concentrated on taking them down with munitions.

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» Original concept art for Clint and Annie.

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ecause the pseudo-3D depth of the

screen sometimes made it difficult to

determine the precise location of enemy

bullets, the team also added a pop-up
‘look out!’ speech bubble to help players better
keep track of incoming fire from the bad guys.
“We always kept in our mind about how to avoid
unreasonable or unfair deaths, and the answer to this
was to add a signal that lets the player know that a
bullet was coming towards their character,” Miyabe
explains. “We were able to achieve this game balance,
however, at the same time it created some tricky bugs
that gave us a hard time to fix.”

One of the game’s many neat touches is the fact
that nearly everything rendered in such beautiful pixel
art can be destroyed, or at least visibly ridden with
bullet holes. This includes most of the backgrounds,
where bottles break, signs smash, barrels shatter,
objects catch fire, and more. “The destroyable
backgrounds were difficult, but what really gave us a
hard time was the fact that we had to create [all] the
‘destroyed’ graphics by hand,” Miyabe reflects. “But
we wanted to give players an exciting and exhilarating

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feeling when they played the game, as well as give
them the catharsis of destroying various objects.
Also, because the levels don't scroll in any way, we
concentrated on how we could increase the gameplay
using just one screen. And to increase the feeling of
the Wild West setting, we added a heat haze effect. |
came up with this idea after seeing RoboCop 3!"

lt was important to the team that Wild Guns was
an enjoyable co-op two player game, and indeed this
is one of the title's most enjoyable features. There's
nothing quite like taking down a hulking great robot or
a massive flame-throwing tank in the middle of the
Arizona desert with a buddy. “Our main goal was to
surprise the player, and we emphasised the size of the
bosses and their attack methods,” says Miyabe. Care
was taken to ensure that each of the boss fights was
challenging but fair, and that targets and weak points
were easily visible, highlighted by flashing indicators
when hit. Wild Guns even makes it easier to practice
the stage and boss of your choice by allowing players
to select the order in which they tackle the middle
four areas of the game, which include a gold mine, an
ammunition factory and a moving armoured train.

Due to being released towards the end of the life of
the SNES, Wild Guns didn't make a huge impact at the
time, despite positive reviews praising its gameplay,
visuals and sound. However, in retrospect, the game
has taken on the mantle of bona fide cult classic, with

CYCLOPS BOT

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“We've seen it
being sold for more
than 100,000 Yen
in Japan!”

Toshiyasu Miyabe

copies changing hands on Ebay for surprisingly large
sums, something which hasn't escaped the notice of
Miyabe.” Yes,” he laughs, “we've seen it being sold for
more than 100,000 Yen [about £700] in Japan, and, of
course, we each have a copy for ourselves!”

ortunately, there are several other ways

to get to play Wild Guns these days, and

the game stands up surprisingly more

than two decades on, retaining its fun
playability, and feeling as timeless as Gene Wilder
in Blazing Saddles and Jane Fonda in Cat Balou.
The title was rereleased on the Virtual Console for
Nintendo's Wii in 2010, the Wii U in 2014, and more
recently a remastered version, Wild Guns Reloaded
was launched on the PS4, with plans for a PC port via
Steam to be released later this year. This new version
features updated widescreen HD graphics coupled
with classic gameplay and stages from the original,
along with two all-new characters, simultaneous four
player co-op, and two bonus levels inspired by ideas
that never made it into the SNES version.

“When we started development on Wild Guns
Reloaded, we were anxious about whether a
retro-looking game would fit in today’s market,” says
Miyabe of the project that reunited the original trio to
reprise Wild Guns for modern audiences. “However,
looking back on what we have created, we felt that the
same essence and core enjoyment was there even
after 22 years.” As to why the game was released as a
PS4 exclusive, Miyabe explains: “We had the console
we wanted to release the game on in our mind when

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along the roof of rumbling carriages, blasting the enemy on
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sandcrawler this boss is very Star Wars, except for being a train.

THE MAKING OF: WILD GUNS

we started, and because this game was made by just
the three of us, we concentrated on one platform.”

The new characters in Wild Guns Reloaded are
distinctly different from Clint and Annie, who played
all but the same bar for one of them wearing a
dress. Bullet is a small sausage dog with a floating
robot drone, while Doris is a lady who likes to rely on
explosive grenades. “It was really difficult to finalise
Doris and Bullet, but we always had in our mind to
make these new characters have a different style of
play from Clint and Annie,” says Miyabe.

True to its roots on the SNES, the team was keen
to ensure the retro influence extended to other areas
of the remaster. “When we made the new music,
we actually started by making songs using the SNES
sound source,” he reveals, “and then arranged it like
we did with the other music in the game.”

We mention to Miyabe that despite its lack of
popularity when it first arrived, it feels like his game
is finally being recognised for its unique and enduring
appeal amongst retro-minded fans. “Well, firstly,
thanks for the compliment,” he replies. “As for us,
we feel like there are hardcore fans of the game, but,
frankly speaking, the three of us don't feel like it's that
popular!” But then, you could say that about the film
Once Upon A Time in the West. And that's terrific. ¥

GANGBOSS KID

The final boss is the head of the Kid family that killed Annie's
parents, and he reminds us a bit of Dr Loveless in eR CRN (28
PAU oat FNeearecel LVN OR ULn eS area minions and gun
sentry towers then blast him. Revenge is yours.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 107

It’s been 25 years since British studio Rare rebooted one of
Nintendo's first mascots, giving us the ideal excuse to uncover the
history of this smashing SNES title

CCT Me ome Nala) oe ele) |

» PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

» DEVELOPER: RARE

» RELEASED: 1994

» PLATFORM: SNES, GBC

» Rare’s purpose-built HO was funded off the back of Donkey Kong Country's success.

retty much every game development studio of note
has a title in its back catalogue that can be seen as
a pivotal point in its evolution and growth. Valve has
Half Life, id Software has Doom, and Square has Final
Fantasy, these games provided the momentum that has
propelled such esteemed companies to global stardom, and without
these significant successes, it’s highly plausible that such famous
code houses might not even exist today. UK-based Rare is no
exception to this rule. While the firm wasn't in any danger of falling
into obscurity during the early Nineties, it’s hard to imagine that it
would have become quite as big as it is today without the propulsion
provided by the 1994 SNES smash-hit Donkey Kong Country.

Today, Rare is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Game
Studios and operates out of a purpose-built, high-tech HQ in the
idyllic Leicestershire countryside, but prior to reviving

the Donkey Kong brand, it was based in the rather
less-modern surroundings of a Grade II listed
farmhouse, just a few miles up the road from its
current residence. Despite the lack of swanky
offices, it was just as fascinating a place to work
as legend might have you believe. “Rare was an
p amazing place back then,” recalls Brendan Gunn,
who was employed as a technical programmer
on Donkey Kong Country and had previously
worked on the NES classic Captain Skyhawk. “It
was quite a small company with a real family feel.
Games were created in a very organic way, not
planned out in detail in advance. We were always
free to just try out ideas. Whatever worked
would stay, and if it didn’t feel good, we just
ripped it back out again. In those days, it was not
uncommon for entire games to be shelved if they
didn’t show enough promise. | think this was key to
keeping the quality high.”
Following a string of commercial successes during
the late Eighties and early Nineties, the Stampers faced an

THE MAKING OF: DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

uncertain future — as did the industry in general. The next
generation of systems had started to arrive in the form
of the 3D0, Amiga CD32 and Philips CD-i, but owners of
existing 16-bit consoles seemed curiously reticent to upgrade,
thanks largely to the unproven nature of CD-ROM systems and the
high cost of new hardware. Sensing that the current generation still
had some life in it but simultaneously mindful of an exciting new

era just around the corner, the Stampers began to invest heavily in
new graphics tech with the ultimate aim of creating one of the most
advanced code houses in the British Isles.

It was a risky strategy, which involved great expense and
temporarily limited the development output of the studio, but it
was one that ultimately paid off; encouraged by the work being
undertaken in Twycross, publishing partner Nintendo decided it was
time to invest in the firm and promptly purchased 49 per cent of the
company. “Rare began experimenting with creating 3D-rendered
characters with our expensive new Silicon Graphics computers,”
Brendan explains, likening the situation to a perfect storm of
events. “Visitors from Nintendo were suitably impressed by what
we were working on, and Rare became a second-party developer.
Rare had already impressed Nintendo with some excellent games,
several of which Nintendo had actually published themselves. The
obvious potential of pre-rendered 3D graphics would have sealed
the deal, especially as the SNES was nearing the end of its life, and
Nintendo was a little behind the competition in developing the next
generation of 3D-capable consoles.”

Nintendo's execs were so taken with what Rare had achieved
with its shiny-new Silicon Graphics workstations that it effectively
opened up its vault of properties and allowed the British company
to take its pick — within reason, of course. “At this point, the door

Whatever worked would
stay, and if it didn’t feel good,
we just ripped it back
out again 9!

Brendan Gunn
was open for the Stampers to push for the use of some existing
Nintendo IP,” Brendan says. “Obviously, they wouldn't give us a
treasured character like Mario, but Donkey Kong had been largely
abandoned for some time, and this was a chance to give him a new
burst of life.” Indeed, save for a few cameo roles, the mighty Kong
had been largely dormant for the best part of a decade; his last
outing was 1983's Donkey Kong 3. Ironically, during 1994 another
Kong game would hit the market in shape of the Game Boy title
Donkey Kong ‘94 (see “1994's Other Kong”), but it was more of a
retooling of the 1981 original than an entirely new adventure, and its
release did little to detract from Rare’s grand vision.

Brendan‘s role on Donkey Kong Country was a technical one,
and he had to come up with the code that would make everything
sing. His contribution was an incredibly important one, but even
so, he was unprepared for the first time that he laid eyes on Rare’s
fresh interpretation of gaming’s most famous ape. “! was really
amazed the first time | saw a 3D-rendered Donkey Kong model
on screen,” he recalls more than twenty years later. “It looked so
different from traditional hand-drawn graphics, and far ahead of
what consoles would be able to render in real-time for many years
to come. It was very exciting and inspiring to work with these
graphics. All my previous games had been solo projects in terms of
programming, so Donkey Kong Country was different in that | could
spend all of my time focused on the visuals, leaving the gameplay
to Chris Sutherland. For me, that was a bigger difference than the
pre-rendering. | was able to put a lot of time into really optimising
the use of video RAM to get a lot of variation in the graphics.

100.GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 109

1994’S OTHER KONG

With two Kongs around, 1994 marked the battle of the apes

While Rare managed to kick-start Kong's career
with Donkey Kong Country and turn the massive,
bumbling primate into a household name
lM CRU fells
character starred in during the bumper year

of 1994. June (September in Europe) saw the
launch of an all-new Donkey Kong adventure on
the monochrome Game Boy system that is often
referred to as Donkey Kong ‘94. Based loosely on
the original 1981 arcade machine that started it
all, it begins with the coin-op's first four levels,
Tae ede oe le al cle id
that take the core gameplay seen in Kong's
CCT eT Oma m ear RMU] eae

of enhancements and improvements. Our hero
Mario (who reverts back to his not-so-Super
guise for this release) can swim, climb ropes
and even catch incoming barrels, and there

are boss fights to contend with as well, many

of which are extremely fun. While the arcade

CERNE Ree Rag me Ce elec]
outing is blessed with a battery back-up facility
so that players can retain their progress. All
things considered, Donkey Kong ‘94 really is a
fantastic update to the coin-guzzling original and
rightly received critical acclaim on its release;
however, hitting the market in the same year as
Rare’s legendary title perhaps dented its chances
of long-lasting fame, and it has been rather
overshadowed in the years that have followed.
Thankfully, it hasn’t been totally forgotten and is
currently available on the 3DS Virtual Console,
where it is well-worth investigating. One final
point of interest is that Kong is wearing a red tie
in this title, an item of clothing that Rare would
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on this infamous character since the launch of
Donkey Kong Country.

» The variety showcased in the game's many levels, like this snow storm, really put rival SNES titles to shame.

110 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

Aren’t youltror sight ~
for sore eyes?!

» Rare created an entire Kong family for the game, including the memorable Cranky Kong.

> We didn't want it to look like there was a lot of repeated images
on screen. | also spent a lot of time adding lots of layers of parallax
in the backgrounds, and adding the day-to-night transitions and
weather effects.”

Those familiar with the geography of the English Midlands will
be aware that Rare’s HQ isn't the only thing that the small and
rather sleepy village of Twycross is famous for — it also boasts an
internationally renowned zoo, which houses the largest selection of
monkeys and apes in the western hemisphere, making it the ideal
research target for a game studio creating a title showcasing plenty
of hairy primates. That's what you'd assume at least, but sadly the
trip that occurred during the creation of Donkey Kong Country would
prove to be a waste of effort. “| was not involved in the zoo visit,
but | understand it was ultimately fruitless," Brendan smiles. “The

64When it comes to working
on familiar genres, we looked
to Nintendo. Why not learn
from the best? 99

Brendan Gunn

animators tried making Donkey Kong move like a real ape, but it just
didn't look right in the game and he finished up moving more like a
galloping horse.”

onkey Kong Country was designed from the ground
up to be a ground-breaking visual spectacle, but like
so many titles of the period, it took inspiration from
one of the oldest SNES games: Super Mario World.
Kong is able to jump onto the heads of enemies — just
like Mario — and collects bananas instead of coins; he also traverses
a massive overworld map and is able to move freely between stages
using connected pathways — something that was popularised by
the Super Mario series and copied by Rare and countless other
developers. To call this slavish cloning might be a little overzealous,
but few would deny the fact that Rare’s prestigious Nineties output
benefited greatly from ideas generated by the Japanese company
with which it shared a very intimate relationship. “Rare has made
a lot of original games,” starts Brendan, “But when it comes to
working on familiar genres, we always looked to Nintendo for
inspiration. Why not learn from the best? We always tried to put our
own spin on things — not simply copying Nintendo's games — but

THE MAKING OF: DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

100. GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 111

Peer rg
Poteet)

112 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

THE MAKING OF: DONKEY G COUNTRY

>> A GAMING EVOLUTION ‘super Mario World > DK Country > Clockwork Knight

Shigeru " Sega’s Saturn-
Miyamoto’s re j based 2D
seminal 16-bit platform epic
Taare ali airy took the 3D

a massive . rendered visuals
influence on hay of Donkey Kong
practically every 3 Country to the

2D platformer. . next level.

the graphics, and | continued to refine some of the techniques I'd
used in the original. | was particularly pleased with the 3D effect
inside the flooded ship — | can’t even remember whether that was
Donkey Kong Country 2 or Donkey Kong Country 3. The dripping
honey effect in Donkey Kong Country 2 was quite satisfying, too.
Although the sequels were more polished in a number of ways, |
don't look back on them with the same fondness as the original. |
just don't really like retreading old ground.”

Nevertheless, Brendan's involvement with the Donkey Kong
Country series would have a dramatic impact on his life thanks
to the bonus scheme that Rare operated during his tenure with
the company, which ensured that staff benefited from their hard
work should their games turn out to be big sellers. Is it fair to say
that these releases changed his life? “ Donkey Kong Country and
its sequels were pretty lucrative, but ‘life-changing’ is perhaps
alittle strong,” he replies with a chuckle. “I'd definitely say ‘life-
enhancing’! Brendan now works outside of the games industry
with a design firm in Ashby-de-la-Zouch — a small town just minutes
away from Rare’s Twycross HO and the place where Tim and Chris
Stamper originally founded the company back in Eighties, under the
moniker Ashby Computers & Graphics — and remains very proud
of the things he achieved during his time with the studio. “It was
great working with so many talented people over so many years, but
for me Donkey Kong Country was the pinnacle. The best part was
working with such an amazing team.” ¥%

CONTINUATION OF KONG

The line of Nintendo's infamous ape didn’t end with Rare

When Microsoft purchased Rare it drew a
TAMU ae Ca eT MeN a)
the Donkey Kong character it had done so
much to revitalise. However, it thankfully
didn’t mean the end of the Donkey Kong
Country series, as in 2010 Nintendo
enlisted Texas-based Retro Studios to
create Donkey Kong Country Returns for
LUCA aCe Reg eel Ree lt
EE RU Re] Oem anos
Maarten Mela Ue Cia Mea cll
achievement when you consider that Rare
wasn't involved in its production. The game
would be ported to the Nintendo 3DS in
2012 by Monster Games, and Retro would
return to the series in 2014 with Donkey
Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Wii U
(which was later re-released on Switch).

» Donkey Kong Countrywas rebooted for the Wii in 2010 as Donkey Kong Country Returns. A Wii remaster in 2014 added Cranky Kong.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 113

|
I

7
it

years after its creation as a
tabletop RPG, Beam Software
created the first videogame
incarnation of Shadowrun for
the SNES back in 1993, a title
that blended both the RPG
and action genres — as well as
ict] fiAVar-ale UAT eMYALA COT] mY ela em

was in limbo during some of its

114 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

RPG. Denis Murph

he year 2013 saw the release
of Shadowrun Returns, one of
the many videogame success
stories that have emerged from
UMC m dla a elo
though Hairbrained Schemes has brought
its vision of Shadowrun to fruition 24

Originally pitched by Gregg Barnett in
conjunction with Jordan Weisman of FASA,
and accepted by Data East, Shadowrun

development due to his sudden departure
from the project. With Gregg notably

It pushed the SNES's capabilities to its limits and had a
fanbase eagerly awaiting an adaptation of their beloved tabletop
breaks down the story behind a

absent, the game was heavily reworked
during development, as one developer puts
it, “to make it actually achievable.” After
slightly deviating from Gregg’s original
vision for it to have a “strong noir look”,
one major change to the gameplay was the
removal of the ability to use a motorcycle
to traverse the city. Instead, a train
system was implemented, thus
cutting down on excessive sprites
meek RUAN ee Cae
during the game’s development.
Despite seeing changes
throughout development from
Gregg’s originally accepted pitch,
the main focus of Shadowrun remained;
to deliver a game that both fans of the
tabletop RPG and newcomers could
enjoy. Game designer on the project
after Gregg departed, Fi |: TEWEETS
his appreciation of tabletop RPGs, “I’m a

punk classic

se he

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gunned down. Your job is to find out why.

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as to why you were put on a hit-list. —
O

long time RPG enthusiast. | knew of the
Shadowrun game (though at that time, |
wasn’t a player myself). | had my own RPG
games published out in the marketplace
(Albedo, Lace & Steel), so | wanted to
do a good job for my fellow RPG fans.”
Despite admittedly not being an active
player of Shadowrun himself at the time,
Paul instantly saw the possibilities that

the universe offered and was determined
to get its videogame translation correct.

“It offered a chance to do adventures

that operated on both the physical level,
and also on the plane of cyberspace,” he
explains. “Plus, most adventures up to that
point had been about individual characters.
Shadowrun was about assembling

teams.” With the team assembled and a
tabletop RPG fan as its lead, Shadowrun’'s
development went into full swing.

The game opens in Seattle, Washington
in the year 2050, amid a sprawling
cyberpunk backdrop. The story to
Shadowrun was simple, yet effective.

After being gunned down and left for
dead, the player takes command of courier
Jake Armitage and must find out who

the mysterious ‘Drake’ is, the individual
who ordered his execution. However,

Aa Mee eR M VALU UR e Lge mac)
original tabletop RPG envisioned could be
physically realised within the confines of a
simple SNES cartridge.

Creating Shadowrun’s world was no
easy task. The choice to present the game
from an isometric perspective was, in part,
picked to give the illusion of a fully 3D
world, seeing as such an environment on
the SNES wasn't feasible at that time. As
system programmer
it, “We wanted the game to be in 3D, not
top-down as in other RPGs. A room-based
isometric view was designed. The overall
graphical design was highly tailored by the
systems hardware, including the scrolling
of two screens and also the number of
levels of items that could be overlapped.”
For a game with its feet placed firmly in the
realm of a rule-based tabletop RPG, Beam
Software looked to who
served as map constructor on the project.
“To be honest, there wasn’t really an
approach or a plan,” he recalls. “Between
us, Andrew Buttery and | were in charge

of making all of the maps for the game.
As is always the case, we were working
on the maps at the same time the game
engine and the map design tool were
being created.” Also praising the freedom
given to him during development, Justin
says, “Most of the time, we were given a
great deal of freedom to create the maps.
MCR Wola <<te RVI am ual Mela] celal cna 181)
for each of the areas, like the city streets,
the docks or the ship. The most important
thing was for us to try to find new and
interesting ways to use the limited artwork
we had.”

Despite limitations, Justin found realising
the world of Shadowrun on the SNES
rather frustrating, lamenting, “We were
always under the pump on Shadowrun,
and lots of parts of the game were thrown
together, cut out, or bodged together! We
were always running out of memory, and
we begged the publisher for a 12 megabit

Paul Kidd

» PUBLISHER: DATA EAST

BeBe sa
SOFTWARE, LASER BEAM

ai at) eed
» PLATFORM: SNES
BA) i OMe tied

661 wanted to do a good job for
my fellow RPG fans » »

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Shadowrun, which echoes the opening
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e

cartridge but they wouldn't commit to the
extra memory. So, the artists would be
constantly revising all of their artwork to
reduce the character counts. That’s why the
helicopter at the volcano is viewed front-on,
so we could flip the left and right sides,

and why all of the baddies have the same
corpse...” Though Shadowrun did have a
number of its character and enemy sprites
downgraded which impacted the game’s
intended visual flair, Justin is eager to call
both the actual engine and the in-game
tools “fantastic”.

eing one of two programmers
behind the project, and also
responsible for architectural design
and the PC tools which allowed for
world building, Andrew explains how he
and his fellow programmer worked their
way around certain graphical limitations.
“The SNES did not provide an arbitrary
bitmap rendering system as is common
today, but used a system of character
generators and sprites,” he begins. “This
meant the backgrounds had to be built on a
rigid 64 by 32 grid of eight by eight cells. The
hardware provided three layers with which
characters (implemented using sprites)
could move, but this wasn’t enough. We
used a special hardware trick called ‘sprite
masking’ which was actually a hardware
bug that let us cut holes in sprites where the
characters were, so we could make a sprite
appear to go behind a pillar for example.
This required a complex database, so the
PC tool allowed designers to construct
levels from modular parts from the artists
and build 3D information (floor is flat, wall
is upright etc). The levels would then be
compiled into a single database so that all
the graphic information could be shared
in a virtual character set. The runtime
building of the levels from this database was
written by Darren Bremner, all in glorious
assembler code.” Additionally, Andrew
goes on to elaborate on how the game was
put together. “All the game systems were
written in assembler code, and most other

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 115

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games for the SNES
were completely written
es in assembler code. There was
little use of languages such as C, due
partly to the little runtime RAM available.
There was only 128K of RAM into which [we
could] decompress art and audio, as well
as run the game and its logic. However, we
didn’t want to have to write all the game
logic in Assembler, it would be too error
prone and tedious. As other languages
were heavy on RAM usage we designed
our own language, which we compiled to
a virtual stack-based code that the runtime
code would interpret and execute. The
language was designed so the compiler
could pre-compute the exact workspace size
(or stack) a script would need down to the
byte, so the runtime could allocate exactly
the space required (a concept | learnt from
work with transputers). This let us us run
multiple scripts for all the characters in a
scene in very little space, a few K. | wrote
the compiler and Darren wrote the runtime.”
NSilaremeldare mi aeic-l em ele
Shadowrun beyond its obvious source
material, all three developers come to the
same conclusion — William Gibson’s classic
1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, the
novel that defined the cyberpunk genre.
Justin elaborates, while also mentioning
another somewhat unlikely source of
inspiration, “There’s a huge amount of
Neuromancer in Shadowrun, as there
was in all of the cyberpunk genre. The
other influence that players have probably
noticed was Minesweeper, the time-killing
puzzler that shipped with Windows.
When it came to the hacking mini-game,
no one could think of how to do it until
someone came up with the idea of using
Minesweeper's mechanics for the hacking.”
Beyond the cyberpunk city setting, the
player also had the ability to enter the
‘Matrix’, a virtual world within Shadowrun

116 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

accessible
using a cyberdeck.
Created primarily by
Graeme Scott, it was presented
to be visually different from the

main game and featured a new style of
gameplay to emphasise the gulf between
the real world and this virtual cyberspace.
Paul notes, “We had to keep it as simple

as possible, given the time constraints

and the memory constraints of the
machine.” Yet despite talk of the system’s
shortcomings to a certain degree, Andrew
was quite confident that it could handle
Shadowrun. He recalls, “The SNES was

a great machine, especially after working
on its predecessor the NES. Its very non-
orthogonal hardware always made it a
challenge on how to design a game around
it. It was probably the most powerful
graphic chip of its type, even compared

to the AGB. It not only had a CPU whose
speed was measured in the low MHz but

a host of special DMA tricks (giving us

the famous Mode 7) and excellent audio
that, for the first time, allowed a musician
to actually compose real music for a
videogame. Overall, the SNES allowed us
to deliver a console game which, for the

aa Nata haa ee vm
and that was game design * *

Andrew Bailey

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(PICTURED)
SYSTEM: C64,

ZX SPECTRUM
YEAR: 1988

THE WAY OF THE

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SYSTEM: VARIOUS
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time, didn’t have to comprise on its quality
due to hardware limitations.”

owever, there is one side to this
story that will never be told
again, and that is the first-hand
account of Arthur Kakouris,
project manager and additional game
designer on the project. Arthur Kakouris
passed away in September 2012, and the
man who was known as ‘Artie’ is sadly
missed and not forgotten. Justin reflects:
“Arthur was a great friend, especially
during Shadowrun. He was the sort of
producer and designer who put everything
into the game, and made it a pleasure
to work on. We'd go out at 11pm for
Slurpees for the team, and head to Pizza
Hut every Tuesday for all-you-can-eat
pizza. Unfortunately, he was born with a
heart defect and had open-heart surgery
when he was around 20. Last year his
heart finally gave out and he died.” Paul
also chimes in with his thoughts on the
passing of a friend, telling us, “Arthur was
a deeply serious and dedicated guy. What
| loved about him was that you could just
discuss an idea with him and let him go —
he’d work away at it and something good
would result.” Andrew also shares his
memories, and believes that Shadowrun

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meant quite a lot to Arthur. “Naturally | was
deeply shocked and upset with Arthur's
passing last year, as Arthur joined myself
and Trevor Nuridin as an owner of Tantalus
Entertainment over one-and-a-half decades
ago. This was compounded by the fact |
was on the other side on the world and
couldn't attend his funeral. On Shadowrun
Arthur did what he loved best, and that
was game design. | believe he would have
remembered [it] as one of the best projects
he worked on.”

A year after Beam Software released
Shadowrun, another Shadowrun title
hit the shelves, this time developed by
BlueSky Software for the Sega Mega Drive,
which was then followed by a Japanese
take on the franchise in 1996 by Compile.
It seems Beam Software hit a timely nerve
but, despite a fantastic critical response
to its Shadowrun, a direct sequel never
materialised. In fact, despite a post-credits
message promising a sequel, the team
were adamant that it was never seriously
discussed. Andrew does interject with a
revealing story though, “The Japanese
version was interesting. This was because
it came to be proposed after we had
finished the English version, and we were
presented by the Japanese publisher with
a big printout where they had reverse
engineered the VRAM (graphic memory)
for all the different screens, working out

aaa an an ee 2

LOGGING TO CENTRAL ALPHA

THE MAKING OF: SHADOWRUN

RECRUITING

yourself some friends...
Through its adaptation into a

age
videogame, Beam Software fy -
was keen on having the game 4
stay true to its tabletop roots. In
Shadowrun the player could hire
other Shadowrunners as backup
throughout the game. They could
be found in the many dingy bars
of Seattle, and if a Shadowrunner died, they re-spawned back at where

you found them. This let players experiment with different combinations,

without the penalty of losing a potential ally forever. This addition of
building up a team paid homage to the group-style gameplay of the
tabletop RPG. The number that could be hired, and the length of time
that they could stay with you, was dictated by the player’s Charisma
level; if your level was higher, you could save money on Shadowrunner
hires. Additionally, there was one ally that would try and kill the player,

resulting in quite an unexpected confrontation for unaware players.

itt I

where the Japanese font could be fitted in.
While it was an impressive piece of work,
we didn’t have the heart to tell them it

was useless. This highlighted a difference
between how we in the West (or South for
Beam) worked differently to the East. While
they allocated the space for the art by hand,
we wrote systems to do this in code, so we
simply added the Japanese font to a table
and it was done.”

As these three developers reminisce
about their game, we had to ask, are there
any secrets in Shadowrun that no one
knows about? Surprisingly, two of them
speak up. James lays out what hasn’t been

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SHADOWRUNNERS

Finding hacking too difficult? You need to get

LULL,

THANK YOU FOR USING ALPHA.

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discovered for 20 years, saying “There is

a cheat in the game, but | can’t remember
exactly how to do it. Basically, there is a
flickering streetlight in the first street area
after you wake up in the morgue. If you
examine the Matchbox four times around
the flickering light, you're teleported to

a cheat room that contains a bunch of
upgrades and gives access to all of the
levels.” However, Andrew also jumps in
with an alternate take on it all: “There is
an Easter Egg in the game, a certain dance
around a lamppost in the main square that
was put in for QA. | wish | could remember
the actual cheat, but it is now 20 years
ago.” Conflicting accounts, certainly, but
now a secret best explored by the retro
gaming public...

26 years on, Shadowrun remains one of
the SNES's strongest and most memorable
Western titles, and certainly its best RPG.

It combined a wonderful narrative, a
gorgeous cyberpunk-laden setting and tied
diverse and interesting gameplay together
in one neat little package. Looking back,
how do these developers view their work?

“| actually really like what we did,” Paul
remarks. “As other people produced games
in following years, | could see the influence
of Shadowrun through many of them.”
Justin also backs up Paul's feelings on the
game, saying, “I’m still amazed we actually
finished the game! We were a young
team and were fortunate to be given the
opportunity to work on a game that went
on to become a minor classic!” Andrew
on the other hand simply commends the
efforts of all involved, intimating, “I regard
Shadowrun as one of the best projects
| have worked on. | think this is mainly
because the entire team was really into the
game and the concept and went that extra
mile on each aspect of the game — design,
art, scriptwriters and OA.” It would appear
that Hairbrained Schemes’ new Shadowrun
Cela ME SSN aN VR oR OnE 9

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 117

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More classic RPGs that became fully-fledged videogames

MECHWARRIOR

DEVELOPER: DYNAMIX

SYSTEM: MS-DOS,
SHARP X68000

earls) eS

MEGATRAVELLER 1:
THE ZHODANI
CONSPIRACY
DEVELOPER: PARAG
SOFTWARE

SPACE:

DEVELOPER: PARAGON

IFTWARE

PUBLISHER: MICROPR'

SOFTWARE INC

a |

REALMS OF ARKANIA:

BLADE OF DESTINY

DEVELOPER: ATTIC

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

PUBLISHER: US GOLD

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AR KoACN TA

SHADOWRUN
DEVELOPER: BLUESKY
SOFTWARE
PUBLISHER: SEGA
SYSTEM: MEGA DRIVE

YEAR: 1989

MechWarrior, based upon the

tabletop RPG of the same name,
which is part of the BattleTech
franchise, placed the player
within the cockpit of a hulking
mech, something that was quite
interesting and new back in 1986.
Despite the title, MechWarrior
had much more to offer than
standard mech-on-mech combat.
Based around quite an impressive
reputation system, the player
could build relationships with the
five Great Houses that could lead
to opening up more missions to
partake in. Spawning a whole
slew of sequels and spin-offs,
MechWarrior games have arguably
become even more popular than
their tabletop RPG source material.

118 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

SYSTEM: AMIGA,
ATARI ST, MS-DOS
YEAR: 1990

Based on the tabletop RPG

Traveller, this overlooked title
gave the player a wonderful sense
of freedom, despite receiving
mixed reviews upon release. The
player takes command of five
adventurers as they try and save
their civilisation, the Imperium,
from the alien race known as the
Zhodani. Containing eight solar
systems and 28 planets to visit,
Megatraveller’s world is vast and
interesting. While combat is lacking
at times and some elements of its
source material are missing, it does
not take away from how innovative
and daring this was for its time.

SYSTEM: AMIGA,
ATARI, MS-DOS
YEAR: 1990

Here's one that has gone

under the radar for many. In
Space: 1889 you create five unique
characters from scratch and set
out on an epic adventure. Set in an
alternate 19th Century Victorian Era
that has already discovered space
travel, the game takes the familiar
and has alittle fun. This merging of
history and sci-fiis rather interesting
and plays out exceptionally well as
you encounter historic characters
such as Jules Verne, Jack the Ripper
and Rasputin, but with a twist.
With the addition of being able to
purchase spaceships on top of the
familiar RPG formula, Space: 1889 is
an undiscovered gem.

SYSTEM: AMIGA, MS-DOS

YEAR: 1992

Though this year sees a remake

of it, the original Realms Of
Arkania: Blade Of Destiny - which
is the first title in the Northlands
Trilogy - should not be overlooked.
Based upon the tabletop RPG The
Dark Eye, the game is steeped
heavily in lore and, in turn, does a
great job at world building. Taking
command of six characters, the
player navigates through beautifully
constructed 3D environments and
battles fierce enemies. Complete
with rather in-depth character
customisation and a superbly
detailed isometric battle view,
Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of
Destiny is a terrific start to a highly
enjoyable trilogy.

YEAR: 1994

One year after Beam Software

released its superb SNES
adaptation of Shadowrun, BlueSky
Software released its own take on
the franchise. While it comes from
the very same source material, it is
a rather different beast compared
to its Super Nintendo counterpart.
With a fully customisable player-
character right from the start,
acracking narrative, accessible
combat and a wonderful portrayal
of the ‘Matrix’ (which is arguably
better than that of the SNES game),
this is yet another excellent vision
of the tabletop role-playing game. It
takes a slightly different approach,
but some might make a case for it
being the superior adaptation of its
source material.

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DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS: TOWER
OF DOOM

PUBLISHER: IN-HOUSE

SYSTEM: ARCADE

JON IN!

JOIN IN!

BALDUR'S GATE

DEVELOPER: BIOWARE

PUBLISHER: BLACK ISLE

STUDIOS, INTERPLAY

eee 8S

PLANESCAPE:
TORMENT
DEVELOPER: BLACK
ISLE STUDIOS

PUBLISHER: INTERPLAY

ENTERTAINMENT

THE MAKING OF: SHADO

NEVERWINTER
NIGHTS

DEVELOPER: BIOWARE
PUBLISHER: INFOGRAME:!

SYSTEM: WINDOWS,
LINUX, MAC OS X

VAMPIRE: THE
MASQUERADE -—
BLOODLINES
DEVELOPER: TROIKA GAMES
PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION
SYSTEM: WINDOWS

Leave it to Capcom to take the

Dungeons & Dragons franchise
and turn it into a side-scrolling
fighter. But you know what? It
works, and it works amazingly
well. Despite its odd choice of genre
and a focus on fast, intense action,
Tower Of Doomretains some of the
hallmarks of a classic Dungeons &
Dragons experience. Playable with
up to four characters which include
the Fighter, Dwarf, Cleric and Elf,
and containing a massive array of
attacks, actions and spells, Tower

Of Doomis a surprisingly fresh and

enjoyable approach to the series. It
spawned its own sequel, Shadow
Over Mystara. It’s now available on
Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Baldur's Gate is often listed as

one of the greatest true RPG
experiences to date. Taking place
within the Forgotten Realms, one of
the many D&D universes, Baldur's
Gate is an in-depth and story-driven
game for players who seek true
adventure. Boasting an excellent
dialogue system and diverse
party-based combat, Baldur's Gate
is actually based on Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition
rules, It's an utter treat for players
and non-players of Dungeons &
Dragons alike and spawned a direct
sequel, a number of expansions
and a spin-off. For many, it is the
starting point for those wishing to
enter the world of D&D.

YEAR: 1999
For many gamers, Jormentis
the best Western RPG of all time,
and it's easy to understand why once
you become involved in its rich story.
Helmed by Chris Avellone, the game
placed the player in the role of The
Nameless One, an immortal that has
lived countless lives yet forgotten
them all. Through exploring the city
of Sigil, The Nameless One must
reclaim memories of his past lives.
With a focus on narrative instead
of combat, Planescape: Torment
is a tonic for the gamer weary of
cheap thrills. Thought provoking
and wonderfully realised, it's a must
play, constantly maturing with each
subsequent playthrough.

Neverwinter Nights was named

after the original game of the
same name by Stormfront Studios
in 1991, which was the first graphical
massively multiplayer online
role-playing game ever. Whereas
Bioware based Baldur's Gate on
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
2nd Edition rules, Neverwinter
Nights used 3rd Edition rules. It also
boasted slick graphics that brought
the world of the Forgotten Realms
to life like never before and intuitive

combat that kept gameplay fun and
smart. Neverwinter Nights is one of
the best trips through the world of
Dungeons & Dragons, with a range
of excellent creation tools for making
your own role-playing adventures.

1 Set within the universe

of World Of Darkness by
White Wolf Publishing, Vampire:
The Masquerade — Bloodlines
begins with the death of the main
character, only to be resurrected
as a vampire. The player begins by
choosing between multiple vampire
clans, each with their own powers,
personality and ability to steer the
story in different ways. From there
the player views Los Angeles from
the eyes of vampire, completing
missions across the city while along
the way keeping up the Masquerade
—a vampire law that prevents

the human world from knowing
about their very existence. A truly
wonderful and atmospheric title.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 119

» SNES » 1990 » NINTENDO

For many, the biggest draw of

Nintendo's Pilotwings was its excellent

use of Mode 7. Look past its stunning

visuals however and you'll discover one of

the most captivating games to appear on
Nintendo's 16-bit console.

Pilotwings was a flight simulator at heart, but it was a
flight simulator that was more interested in ensuring player
enjoyment, rather than rigorously focusing on the power
of flight. Elements like altitude and speed would certainly
factor in to stages, but it retained an arcade-like feel that
made it far more accessible than any simulators found on
the PC at the time.

Pilotwings training required the player to master four
distinct methods of flight: Light Plane, Skydiving, Rocket Belt
and Hang Gliding. Initially you're tasked with nothing more
than landing your plane and getting your skydiver safely to
ground, but as the challenges progress you'll be expected
to do ever more complex tricks and tasks in order to fully

RETROREVIVAL

appease your numerous flight instructors.

120,|..100.GAMES TO.PLAY BEFORE. YOU DIE

ALT

Points were awarded for passing through rings, safe
landings, and finishing a run on time, but it was also possible
to earn additional bonuses by hitting specific markers. Land
safely and you'd hopefully pool together enough points
to reach the next flight school, but if you didn’t, perhaps
smacking into the ground while skydiving (leaving a hilarious
man-shaped hole) or becoming a smouldering heap on the

way, your task would become that little bit harder.

You'd stick with it though, because Pilotwings' controls
felt so tight, so precise that the SNES pad felt like a plastic
extension of your hands. Your intrepid pilot failed because you
had failed them, and you'd be the first person to make it right
by returning for one more run.

Nintendo's 3D reimagining, Pilotwings Resort, certainly
tried but fell well short of the original's sheer majesty. Flying
around on your hang glider as the playfield lazily scales and
rotates beneath you remains one of gaming's most relaxing
moments and in some ways it has never been bettered. 29
years after its original release, Nintendo's leftfield flight sim
remains one of the console’s most remarkable games, and a
title that every SNES owner should play. ¥

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expected you to
do so well.

WINTENDOS 3D
GAME-CHANGER

SUPER MARIO 64: NINTENO’S 3D GAME-CHANGER

A Hat In Time director Jonas Kaerlev on how Super Mario 64
inspired and influenced his crowdfunded 3D platformer

When did you first encounter Super Mario 64,
EL ME mC aie ed
| experienced Super Mario 64 for the first time in the
late Nineties. It was the first game | played that was
fully 3D, so it was really impressive at the time.

| wasn't great at English back then, since I'm not
anative English speaker, so a lot of the dialogue got
lost on me, but that didn’t stop me from getting all
PbS lama bard yeaa (emery ACON GRU
gaps and imagine what the characters were saying.
If | didn’t know what to do because the dialogue was
the only guide, I'd just explore the level until | found
out what was going on - this sparked my interest in
games that provide an interesting world to explore.

What were your favourite parts of Super Mario 64?
There are so many good parts! | think everyone
remembers the piano in Big Boo’s Haunt, the vertical
climb up Whomp'’s Fortress, and plotting vengeance
against the bird who took your hat in Shifting Sand
Land, Peach's Castle is also one of the best parts of
SW) o-1atNY 614 eM or te (ci) PCO aa youn o10 oMe=| (aged oA]
full level in and of itself,

Which 3D platform games do you think were
MM tae de eS e
Super Mario Sunshine is definitely one of the best, and
it's a literal successor to Super Mario 64. It stays true
to the formula that Mario 64 created, but adds more
flavour to the world, making it all seem like a real,
connected place. | like how the levels transform over
time. It's so cool to watch Delfino Plaza get flooded
with water when Corona Mountain erupts.
Psychonauts by DoubleFine is also a really great
spiritual successor! It's a bit more story-based, and
the levels are amazing, especially Whispering Rock
and The Milkman Conspiracy. Psychonauts even did
Super Mario Galaxy gravity before that was a thing!

Which elements of Super Mario 64 have you
drawn inspiration from for A Hat In Time?
Similar to Super Mario 64, every mission in A Hat In
Time is centred on a Time Piece the player has to
collect. A lot of the levels undergo massive changes

124 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

for every new mission, to make the level feel fresh
Cana Sa

At first, you might be defeating the Mafia Of Cooks
to collect your Time Piece, and next you're a detective
in the mission ‘Murder On The Owl Express’. Every
new mission has a story, and you'll get to understand
more about the levels and characters on every visit.

As a developer of 3D platform games, how do
you seek to differentiate A Hat In Time from
genre-defining games like Super Mario 64?

A Hat In Time takes a different approach to both
gameplay and story. For gameplay, the player's
moveset is completely different, using a double-jump
and an air boost to navigate both horizontal and
vertical space. The player can also change and
upgrade the moveset by collecting badges and
putting them on their hat. This way, we reward
players for exploring with features that enrich their
(ola ele OLR AN BVA l= 0 aa e en a
called a Chapter. Every Chapter focuses on a single
location, be it Mafia Town, Subcon Forest, or the Owl
Express train. Additionally, every Chapter introduces
anew cast of characters, and these characters
(oan oO Rom aa -18)(e-mOinl- 11 Cl aL OV eLU Rae)
the Chapter finale, where things go off the rails! In
Subcon Forest, you'll be signing your soul away in
contracts to The Snatcher, and on the Owl Express,
you'll have to choose whether the angry Conductor
or the smooth DJ Grooves is your friend, or your foe.

A Hat in Time also supports multiplayer, both local
and online. We took inspiration from a Mario 64 hack,
and saw a lot of potential to fully realise multiplayer
for A Hat in Time. You can defeat bosses, collect Time
Pieces and have a good time your friends.

Lastly, A Hat in Time has modding support.
Players can create their own worlds and missions.
We've seen the amazing things people can make in
Latlmre\ (el0 a oko lan eOR R= 1G OR an ol e-e-m art
fully. The levels can be either simple to design or they
can be giant worlds with multiple missions. All these
LW goa M eM 01-1 C0) Cel Remi e geo]
we hope everyone will be enjoying A Hat in Time
when it comes to Windows and Mac in 2017.

» Chris Sutherland was responsible for
Banjo-Kazooie and is now working on
Yooka-Laylee.

SUPER MARIO 64: NINTENO’S 3D GAME-CHANGER

Chris Sutherland

s were typically linear affairs

» Unlike the
with little freedom to explore.

» Level design was

manipulation of wat quired

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 125

g Mayles
aigner for

» Jumping over waves ofice is just one ofthe challenges in Snow

Man's Land

MORE CHARACTERS >

ie OL OPTIONS

NEW ABILITIES
eC

EXTRA STARS

A closer look at the portly plumber’s amazingly agile abilities

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and switches or smacking enemies

SWEEP KICK @+ 8

@ Useful for making Mario perform

extremely brief breakdancing displays,
but not alot more, sadly. Still, variety is
instead of jumping on them.
never a bad thing, so bust a move from

time to time!

CROUCH @
m@ Where once you would just press down
on the D-pad to make Mario crouch,

here a bespoke button is needed. Rarely
ic-te (Octo RelaM Mel Tame LMi-te(O Tat

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@ Mario no longer has to fear death from
slightly misjudging distance. Fall just

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short of a ledge and you'll grab the edge
and can pull yourself up, sacrificing speed

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incorporated into advanced techniques.

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from whatever he's doing, making it a key
ingredient of any speedrun rather than an
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experts swear by it for grabbing objects
without losing too much momentum.

SUPER MARIO 64: NINTENO’S 3D GAME-CHANGER

» Chris Seavor
was the brains
behind Conker’s
Bad Fur Day.

Chris Sutherland ee a r - "

" at
a an ~

ikely to provide
» The camera would intelliqes y

ntly move to positions, I

a helpful perspective.

m » If the camera ever proved unhelpful, you could even utilise a
_ *,. Mario’s-perspective camera view.

128 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

SUPER MARIO 64: NINTENO’S 3D GAME-CHANGER

Pushing Mario 64 in ways you wouldn't believe

OT eeu em lel
St eee eee
pushed to the limits over the 20 years since
its release. Countless bugs, glitches and quirks
have been discovered in that time, some of which
help towards the goal of getting completion
times down, while others actively go against

that concept. On the former front, various skips
have been found that avoid triggering instances
of text or brief cutscenes, each shaving valuable
seconds off times. Far more noticeable, though,
are the effects of the more significant glitches,
most of which involve performing a backwards
long jump (or BLJ for short) or some variant
thereon. These can be used to skip the Star Doors
that would otherwise gate access to the Bowser
encounters, as well as the ‘infinite staircase’ that
leads to the final level and showdown, making

it possible to clear the game with far fewer than
Tat 0 boi C=e-MO LOT] ae =1e (0) [ete em aM nal al aal ea)
was thought to be one (Board Bowser’'s Sub in
Dire, Dire Docks) for a good while until an even
more complex version of the BLJ trick was found
that let that stage be skipped as well, opening

the door to 0-Star runs (and ironically doing so
without opening the door). These tricks allow

for the credits to be reached in just alittle over
five minutes, while various categories exist for
players who would still chase world record pace
without having to use said tricks to do so.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the work
of YouTuber pannenkoek2012, whose channel is
filled with literally hundreds of videos in which he
does everything from collecting every possible coin
in each level to showcasing various glitches and
oddities in the game that you won't see in a more
Ireiilaare Rs ol=\-10 UM ae em NAN O18 CoCr] ela
Colors an Mele Macreclal \VAale) WALA al oa (olU ae]
fame for a series of videos in which he attempts to
collect many of the game's Stars in as few presses
of the A button as is possible, These challenge
runs, while interesting, only really started to garner
attention in the last year or so, with commentated

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versions of several videos going so

deep into the science of how each run works as
to turn glitch mastery into an art form. In these
videos (which are incredible, it must be said),
you'll see how every stage exists on a near-infinite
grid of so-called ‘parallel universes, which have
collision but no geometry; you'll hear terms like
‘QPU Alignment, ‘Syncing Speed’, ‘Half A-Press’
and ‘Held Object's Last Position’ used in explaining
feats of extreme mechanical manipulation; you'll
discover just how long Mario needs to run on the
spot in certain locations to build up enough speed
to perform some of these crazy glitches (spoilers:
it's 12 hours).

Many of us reflect on Super Mario 64 as an
incredible highlight of our gaming lives — an
amazing introduction to 3D gaming that set the
stage for much of what came after. But for others,
it's an obsession. And whether that means treating
face Me ce-Me lalla Ma bse(-]0liaecve(ipreM=.(el-] aa o1n
the fact that players are still discovering new things
about this game two decades after release is
nothing short of incredible.

Ta aml

ee is eae Rg ae a
game — 70-Star and 120-Star runs are pure skill
exhibitions, while lower categories combine this
with glitch exhibitions.

tasvideos.org/SM64TASHistory - Tool-assisted

videos that show optimal routing and the evolution
of glitch-led runs, from the first 16-Star run back in
2005 to the effectively perfect run recorded in 2012.

youtube.com/pannenkoek2012 - pannenkoek's
YouTube channel, which goes into insane depth on
FU a alms ea U1e Meer AMan\eare]ple=Ker-]p) 01-1
twisted and broken.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 129

many of those initial technical challenges were less
of a problem. Still, it was a game which tried to top
Super Mario 64 in certain areas, and Chris Seavor pulls
no punches in pointing them out. “The visuals... let's
be honest, Mario 64 had some ugly-looking assets in
there," he notes, and it's fair to say that Conker came
out ahead in this regard thanks to Rare’s knowledge of
the N64's hardware, and particularly its texturing quirks
The structure of the game was tweaked too. “We
also added more of a narrative to the world, driving the
player forward not so much to get the next Star, but to
see where the stories and characters lead you.”

Still, Gregg is under no illusions as to how difficult
it was to compete with such a groundbreaking game
“Mario 64 got so many things right that it was hard for
following games to make significant improvements,”
he opines. “Other games had more impressive visuals,
used the performance of the hardware better and
created worlds that had more depth, but few got close
to matching things like Mario's control.”

ver at Interactive Studios, the Glover
team witnessed the same thing.
“Mani set a high bar of quality to meet,”
says Andrew. “We were prototyping

Glover, first on PC and then on an N64 dev kit, and we
were getting great results that we were very happy

» Andrew Oliver
is well aware
Cee sreT nye 2)
Ena ee
the N64, having
Enel

Mario 64 got so many things right that
WECM lee Mem elle mere OM LC
significant improvements

Gregg Mayles

with. But suddenly, we were playing a huge game that
had solved a few problems more elegantly that we
had. For example, it had smoothed-skinned characters,
unlike the hinged, segmented 3D characters that
PlayStation and Glover had! We decided we had to
ensure our characters looked just as smooth and

had to work out how to make an animated skinned
character renderer.” That wasn’t the only innovation
that Andrew and the Glover team had to compete
with. “We just spent ages trying to work out what the
logic was for the camera so we could get somewhere
close,” he remarks. “Technically we figured out most
things, as Glover demonstrates, but Mario was still
obviously a better game.”

With the developers telling us how far they went to
match Nintendo's effort, it's clear that Super Mario 64
had a huge impact on videogames, so we asked them
to quantify it. For John, it was a game that accelerated
the pace of progress in game development. “Nintendo
solved the problems of third-person control in 3D video
games and presented the industry with a ‘how to do
it’ in the form of Mario 64," he says. “| think the
industry would have figured it out eventually
without Nintendo's help but Mario 64 saved us
probably five years worth of failed experiments
and clunky controls.”

For Andrew, it was nothing less than
proof that polygon technology was

that 3D was the future, and not just of driving games,
but all games! It looked so good, and gave some
personality to the characters,” he says. “The worlds
were big and interesting and it immersed players

in a deep and beautiful fantasy world, Over on the
PlayStation, it still felt that 3D was struggling and whilst
technically impressive, the gameplay or graphics were
generally suffering for the 3D experience. Mario 64
showed the way forward for the whole industry!”

“It was the first of its kind and a genuine ‘Wow
Moment’ in gaming that excited even the most jaded
of people. It was a combination of revolution combined
with one of the most prominent and successful series
of games,” says Gregg, summarising the legacy of the
game. However, he also adds a important point: “It's
also stood the test of time. Play Maro 64 today and it’s
still got the ability to transform you into a playful child
where just doing things without thought is great fun.”

That's the key thing to remember about Mario 64. It
was undoubtedly a groundbreaking and technologically-
impressive game, as the developers we've spoken
to have testified. Time marches on though, and other
games have entered the conversation as points of
reference for 3D game design. If Super Mario 64 had
just been a technical achievement, we'd remember
it as an important release. But Super Mario 64 was
always a supremely enjoyable game first and foremost
—and the decades that have passed since it released

» Challenges for Stars were rather unusual

compared to previous Mario — this
Wants to race you. See Kotr

actually viable. “It made everyone realise — haven't dulled that in the slightest.

130 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

~ Ser MARIO 64: NINTENO’S 3D GAME-CHANGER

» Using the analogue stick gently, Mario can tiptoe past this

sleeping enemy without waking it

METROID PRIME
rT

SHE LEGEND OF ZELDA:
OCARINA OF TIME

METAL GEAR SOLID

a PRINCE OF PERSIA 3D

» Most of the extended cast was absent for Su}
Aarne.
doesn’t appear, and Yoshi only has a cameo

| 131

a a. sssananenenee nc tsttanansetataransestteran snatch stan

See much as Mario Kart, | ae
aa + eae ce era an Re ne a 2 oo

Kea] vi asks Lee Schuneman, Kev ea
John ie: and Richard Gale about their
venture-racer hybrid

LEP ome alae) eel) |

iddy Kong Racing

wasn't always called

Diddy Kong Racing. |n

fact, Lee Schuneman, the

game’s producer, wasn't

even making a racer until
amember of the development team
stuck a mammoth on a moped. “We
didn’t have much playable,” Lee begins,
“but Lee Musgrave had come up with a
woolly mammoth riding on a moped for
some random reason and Chris Stamper
decided we should stop doing [an] RTS
and make a racer instead.”

After switching genres, Lee's project
was initially named Wild Cartoon
Kingdom and then Adventure Racers
around which time artist Kev Bayliss,
coders John Pegg and Richard Gale,
and others joined his team. “They
were just different titles as the game
evolved,” explains Lee, “many aspects
like being able to roam the central world
were all there from the start of the
concept, and what really evolved as we
progressed were the racing mechanics
— like drifting — and challenges.” Kev's
initial role on Adventure Racers was as
character artist. “| was involved in the
game at an early stage, when the team
was relatively small, to help with the
direction of the characters,”
he says. John remembers
a badger protagonist and
expensive hardware, “| recall
Adventure Racers featuring
Bumper on the title screen.

All of our development was

done using Silicon Graphics
workstations — very much

state of the art at the time — [with]
internal expansion boards containing
N64 development hardware.” Richard
dates his involvement as post-Wild
Cartoon Kingdom, "| did work on
Adventure Racers — development was all
command-line based and custom tools.”

Lee's expanded team soon gained
approval for their project to go into
development, renamed Pro-Am 64 after
Rare's NES classic. “Chris Stamper —
who was software engineering on the
RTS —- made the decision, and that was
it! We started it in probably August/
September 1996. A decision was

» Bumper eyeballs Diddy Kong on the Jungle Falls track
while challenging Banjo for fifth place.

made that this game was going to be
Rare published rather than Nintendo
published hence using a Rare IP for the
name. RC Pro-Am had been successful
—having a name that people recognise
always helps.” Kev adds, “Adventure
Racers was always going to be a fun,
cute racing game, and so taking the ‘toy’
element from RC Pro-Am - they were

6GWe wanted to push the
adventure element of

the concept JJ

Kev Bayliss

radio controlled cars — and building upon t
hat seemed to make sense.”

But rather than cars, Pro-Am 64's
team favoured karts, planes and
hovercrafts, although not before Kev
considered trikes. “VVe wanted to
create a feeling that you were controlling
toddlers on trikes. But they just didn’t feel
right to race in the game, and they didn’t
look right either,” he says.

Given his project was greenlit shortly
before Mario Kart 64's release, it would
be reasonable for Lee to take inspiration
from Nintendo's racer, but the producer's
influences lay elsewhere. “We hadn't

TIME
4X4 95.05:98

y ry Ti
2/2

» Targeting Banjo on one of Crescent Island's sharp bends
proves too much for Diddy.

seen Mario Kart 64, my inspirations were
Mario Kart on the SNES and Mario 64,"
he highlights. Kev expands on Mario 64's
influence, “we wanted to push the
adventure element of the concept. We
wanted to see if we could move the
genre into another direction.”

Kev also recollects other Rare projects
that proved influential in shaping
Pro-Am 64's character line-
up: “As we were developing
other titles at the same
time that were about to
launch with their own main
characters, such as Conker
and Banjo, we thought it
would be a great idea to
bundle them into the game.”

Amore unlikely inspiration explains
Pro-Am 64 being structured around
acentral area connected to themed
worlds. “It was inspired by theme park
design, I've always loved the work of the
Disney Imagineers,” enthuses Lee.

Asked about the themes chosen
for Pro-Am 64's worlds, Lee says their
platforming elements gave him license to
follow design conventions. “It all comes
back to the core concept of this being a
platformer world, but with racing, so of
course there needed to be fire world,
desert world [and] snow world —all the

usual suspects!” Kev revealssome >

» Competitors must hatch three eggs in a nest to win the
Fire Mountain battle stage.

THE MAKING OF: DIDDY KONG RACING

IN THE
HNOUW

» PUBLISHER: NINTENDO
» DEVELOPER: RARE LTD

» RELEASED: 1997

» PLATFORM: N64

» GENRE: ADVENTURE-RACER

DIDDY KONG
RACING 101

@ Primarily aracer in
gameplay terms, Diddy
Kong Racing is defined

as much by the cutscene
storyline and collection-
based challenges of its
Adventure Mode. Success
in these challenges - and
winning races - unlocks a
plethora of extra content
such as additional courses,
boss races, battle stages
and a bonus world.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 133

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rr)

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
GOLDENEYE 007

(PICTURED)

SYSTEM: N64

YEAR: 1997
BANJO-KAZOOIE
SYSTEM: N64
YEAR: 1998
CONKER’S BAD
FUR DAY
SYSTEM: N64
YEAR: 2001

ee,

= SC

» Boss Bluey the Walrus invites
the player to race in an Adventure
Mode cutscene.

134 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

P plans for the game's desert world.
“The dinosaur areas were going to
have more in the way of racing beneath
stampeding Brontosauruses and across
the backs of huge dinosaurs,” he
highlights. ‘| don’t think we went that far
due to the capabilities of the system.”
As well as world design, Pro-Am 64's
racing aspect required track design, a
multi-staged process initiated by Lee.
“All the designs were done on paper.
| would sketch them out and then
one of the artists would build them in
polygons,” he remembers. “We'd get
them into the game engine fast and start
driving around. We would go back and
fore, a little fine-tuning, and then | would
have a tool that enabled me to edit props.
The key to each track was that we played
every one until [it was] perfect.” Kev
explains how the tracks were designed
to encourage adventuring: “We were

A’
i
A
a

6 6The key to each track was
that we played every one until it
was perfect 99

Lee Schuneman

very particular about making the tracks
nice to look at and almost try to lure the
player off the main circuit to explore
each environment by trying to ensure
that every [aspect] of the tracks looked
interesting and involving.”

s Pro-Am 64's worlds and

tracks evolved so did the

Al governing of its cast of

competitors, which Lee
likens to tabletop racing. “There were
four ‘lanes’ — kind of like Scalectrix — and
each lane was a different path around
the track, some fast and others slow,”
he explains. “As you drove around you
were ‘rubber banded’ to the other Al so
they always felt close. However, for the
highly-skilled we broke the rubber band
so the others couldn't catch you up.”
John notes how each Al racer was made
to feel distinct: “Each character had their
own performance attributes that could
be easily tweaked — for example, top
speed, acceleration and rate of turn.”

The addition of visually stunning

power-ups and weapons helped
Pro-Am 64 realise its platforming
aspirations — often in hilarious style.
“There were certainly some clichéd
Wacky Races-style weapons!”
grins Kev. John elaborates, “the
lead programmer, Rob Harrison,
implemented the weapons and power-
ups. Paul Mountain wrote the software
for some of the associated graphical

effects — like the shields and boost
cones, [these] were 3D models with
code to control their animation.”

Pro-Am 64's adventure aspect
required Kev to create a series of
cutscenes that formed a storyline. “Lead
software engineer Rob Harrison worked
on a animation editor that was tailored
to suit the game,” says Kev. “I told Rob
what | needed to create sequences,
and he created an editor for characters
to follow motion paths. | could flag up
special effects, sound effects, and move
the camera around anywhere. This was
then used to create story sequences.”

Collection-based challenges and
unlockable competitors and tracks
helped broaden Pro-Am 64's gameplay
and increase its replay value. “We
wanted something that would take a
while to complete,” reasons Kev, “by
adding the unlockable content | think we
added longevity to the game's life and
fun factor.” John admits: “! remember
the Greenwood Village silver coin
challenge being particularly hard —| just
couldn't complete it. Tim Stamper's son
managed it, and rang me up to ridicule
me. He must've only been about ten!”

Unsurprisingly, perfecting a
platforming world of racing tracks
replete with polygon racers on unfamiliar
hardware provided challenges. “For
quite a few of us, it was our first game
and we had a lot to learn,” concedes
John. “Even for the team members

» Future Fun Land's Darkmoon Caverns features
a pair of high-octane loop the loops.

» A shielded Diddy avoids losing one of four lives in
the Darkwater Beach battle stage.

who'd worked at Rare for a while it was
quite a transition moving to the N64.
In particular, the artists were having to
learn how to produce 3D models that
were simple enough that they could
be rendered and animated by the N64
hardware in real-time.”

As the team strived to make Pro-Am
64 run faster, a clever compromise

saw them trade polygons for sprites. “|
personally liked the sprite wheels, plane

propellers and hovercraft fans,” reflects
Kev. “This reduced the poly count for
each vehicle creating a solid look on a
relatively low number of triangles.” John
offers: “There was definitely a lot of
effort that went into making [the game]
mostly polygon based. Each vehicle /
character combination was modelled at
several levels of detail so as they moved
further away from the camera they
switched to a simpler model.”

The spring of 1997 saw Lee demo
Pro-Am 64 to E3 attendees including
Shigeru Miyamoto, which led to the
racer gaining a new frontman. “My main
memory is the reaction to the Tick Tock
character for time trial -— Miyamoto liked
him! | imagine it was at this time that
the Diddy Kong conversations happened
with Nintendo and the Stampers.”

A rebranding of Pro-Am 64 as Diddy
Kong Racing posed Lee's team few
problems while raising their game's
profile, but delays on Rare's intended
Christmas title, Banjo Kazooie, handed
them a challenging deadline. “By using
Diddy, we had a strong brand, which
helped to make the game what it was,”
Kev says of the rebrand. On festive
deadlines, John remembers: “Everyone
pulled out all the stops — we worked
crazy hours to get it finished, but the
team pulled together brilliantly.”

» Timber loses fifth place to Diddy as the cheeky
monkey cuts corners in Star City.

» A magnet power-up moves Diddy up a position
in Sherbet Island's Pirate Lagoon.

Hard graft bolstered by an advertising
blitz befitting a Rare Xmas release
ensured phenomenal critical and
commercial success for Diddy Kong
Racing. “We had a great game with Pro-
Am 64, but with the name change and
marketing dollars it became a five million
seller,” Lee beams. “We were proud of
the impact in Japan where | believe it
went to number one.” John comments
on the game's critical success: “We'd
been developing DKRin secret, so
there'd been no build up in the press.
| remember picking up the issue of a
Nintendo magazine where DKR was
revealed — that was the first article we'd
seen, and the response was fantastic.”

Asked for final thoughts, Richard
succinctly offers: “To this day, | still get a
buzz when | meet people that grew up

with DKR.” John ends on a note of pride:

“I'm still immensely proud of what we
achieved, and it's great that people still
play it.” Kev has only happy memories:
“It was one of most fun games

| worked on —it was a fab

team to be involved with.”

Lee's last words on Diddy

Kong Racing are heartfelt:

“None of us knew what

we were doing,
but we loved
every

second of
making it.

It’s still fun

to play, and |
look back with
fond memories.” $¢
Thanks to Lee, Kev,
John and Richard for
sharing their stories
from the DKRbarn.

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the game's immersive worlds and polished = = Se

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SYSTEM: PlayStation @ YEAR: 1997

Cleverly adapting the main series’ mechanic
of claiming your opponent's abilities, Battle
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regulars are playable, with power-ups being
obtained by running over various obstacles.

FA
FANTASY RACE

YSU Ae ENS Lam d= nem haces

Given that Bombermanis maze-based,

it's unsurprising that Fantasy Race ditches
the franchise's mechanics in favour of
conventional racing gameplay. Bomberman
Ee cle cog R Col CaN Lenn ome vlad
racing on Louies and Tirras, which can be
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Clearly influenced by Diddy Kong Racing,
Naughty Dog put its own spin on Rare's
established formula to ensure their final
Crash Bandicoot title stood apart from rd
its more wholesome muse. Imaginative i
oles ua enel- lane aLe| ‘
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KONAMI KRAZY RACERS
SVU SYN Sater 0)0

Aspiritual successor to Super Mario Kart of

sorts, Konami's game uses a Mode 7-type

technique to render its tracks. Krazy Racers

features not one but a dozen franchise

favourites from Konami such as Gray Fox,

Vic Viper and Dracula. The title delivers short

ei ecyVs-1e eel eel AUCs ele lrece|

“Weapons and power-ups.

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& ne of the most rewarding aspects of the
) work we do here at Retro Gamer is how
speaking with key developers on beloved
s titles can capture a tangible sensation of
particular moments in time. DMA Design is fondly
remembered as the developer behind Lemmings and
GTA, but while these are by no means insignificant
feats it's perhaps not the best titles for encapsulating
what it was like to develop games at the studio. In
speaking with Jamie Bryan, who was head of art at
the studio, it's clear that Space Station Silicon Valley
is the game to best understand the creativity, fluidity
and experimentation that came with creating games
at DMA. “Dave Jones [founder of DMA] had created
this environment where a lot of likeminded people
had come together, but it was still a diverse crowd.”

e bright,

136 | 100 GAMES TO

With Lemmings releasing in 1991, the developer
was on an upturn. Jamie recalls how it was an era of
experimentation across the industry, with the prospect
of true 3D gaming on the horizon giving rise to a greater
interest in hiring artists like himself as game developers.

“I'd been sniffing around DMA for some time
because | was working in TV and | was actually quite
keen on working on games,” says Jamie. “I'd been
looking at it for the past few years because game
graphics had changed quite a lot and there was more
need for using artists.” He adds that the industry as
a whole was at that level because of the upcoming
release of the N64 and PlayStation and that DMA, like
everyone else, was keen to get in on the ground floor.
“DMA went through quite a rapid expansion, almost like
an inflation. And with that a whole group of people were
thrown together and inside of that teams were formed.
| was made project manager and given a team and told
to go and make a game on N64.”

All that was provided was a short brief. “There was
a design team who fed out some ideas,” recalls Jamie,
“Dave and a couple of guys who fed out one-page,
really kind of high-level spec documents. This one was
basically: Silicon Valley, animals that fight each other,
and then there's this progression of becoming bigger
and bigger. That was basically it, there wasn’t much to
it.” The idea was to create a game that had the player
gaining abilities as they progress to become stronger
and more powerful, eventually able to take on bigger
threats and overcome more challenging problems.

Initially this sense of progression would be done
through a customisation system that allowed the
playable animal to be equipped with different body parts

. THE MAKING OF: SPACE STATION SILICON VALLEY

ould come to expect in
ied.

that added new functions, but that idea evolved. “Me
and the core team would sit down, starting with this
idea and just sort of building on it,” says Jamie, “so it
was about answering the question, ‘VVhat can we do
with these characters?’ And a lot of it was just playing
with the stuff.” This is a large part of what made DMA
Design such a creative developer, explains Jamie, who
says that not having to stick too stringently to the design
docs meant there was much more freedom in design.
“We would set a character and we would just play
with it. David Osborne, the old head of art, he was a
big influence. He was always going on about treating
the environment like a playfield and the characters are
the toys, and you just play with them and see how they
interact with each other.” The team wasn't given a set
of deadlines or a schedule to stick to, either, which only
gave it more reason to experiment. “That was the basis
of building out and expanding the characters, to get one
character and then stick some wheels on it, see how

it flies, see how it bounces, see how it jumps... >

PLAYSTATION

Lt Wee et ROM MMe UM rd
ports of all time, DMA’s input amounted to
nothing more than handing over the art and Ul
eel TMT Beak OR Uae
Called Evo's Space Adventures on PlayStation
De ai em Om gleam Cale UI
considerably better N64 version from this
ENT em CTL Ul Nm URL et
framerate on PlayStation, bad audio and the
bright, colourful graphics of the DMA version
were replaced with a dark and miserable look.

GAME BOY COLOR

LA Matta NVA Meee ieee NCC)
port, the concept of the game proved to be a
challenge to bring over to the Game Boy Color’s
2D perspective. Tarantula Studios did a great
job of porting the levels in so much as they
CRM CUA VU M OU ual}
CET Lemuel eme let le Mellel g
like-for-like, but sadly the limitations of the
hardware just weren't able to match the grand
idea of its Nintendo 64 sibling.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 137

@ Combining speed and long-range firepower
are two things that remain effective throughout
Ue amen UM le Clee mle ley
certainly an improvement on man's best friend.
Tee Ue MR Lae
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way of introducing the game.

PEE ome Nala) oe ele) |

m Sure, you could go toe-to-toe with rocket
NCTC LA Ne elm R (ele ie)
just drop them from above. For a game about
moving around 3D space, the heli-rabbit feels
ECM merle LLY LC Cele -a-1 Ce}
Tra Re) CR MULE LE

ease that’s not such a concern.

> all that kind of stuff. There was a core set of abilities
that we were able to expand right through all of the
characters, and we did get a bit carried away with an
absence of any schedule so we just started just filling
out all these different ideas, all these different parts.”

While Jamie was the project manager, there was no
real distinction when it came to the design. The iterative
nature of development at DMA meant that ideas came
from everyone, even those not directly involved with the
project. “What we'd do is involve the whole team and
just get people to fire in some ideas,” explains Jamie,
“and then | would collate all the stuff together with my
own ideas and then we'd just kind of mash them all
together to see what we came up with. It was all quite
democratic, without sounding like a hippy commune.
The main thing was because it was a love of games,
and people just wanted to work on the design process
and to feel like their ideas are listened to.”

This approach ultimately lead to Silicon Valley's clear
sense of humour. As a result of this direction, a cartoony,
comical style was adopted. “That's my natural style
anyway,” says Jamie, “so | just kind of worked with
that. And because we wanted to make it quite a funny
game, it just seemed right to keep it comic-looking.”

bg Mee Clee R yee) TlUCte RIUM ABN ser 0
force or its own combustion system (don’t ask).
MN alate Ml Meee earl eee Uy
ELAM TMC Ue CM Leta e-Lem oO
there was something about this fella that just
made him a riot to play as.

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emperor penguin — is essentially the jetpack
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Jamie adds that because it was being developed for
N64, Silicon Valley was “subconsciously” inspired by
the likes of Nintendo's own products. “We were making
some kind of Nintendo game on acid. It was like some
kind of alternative Nintendo universe.” But as it happens,
the game wasn't intended to release on N64. Planned
as part of a three-game deal with BMG Interactive,
Silicon Valley and its stablemates Grand Theft Auto and
Tanktics were due to be developed for PC, PlayStation
and Saturn. However, with Nintendo pumping a lot of
money into Body Harvest and even a potential buyout
on the cards, the game was instead directed onto

N64. “Silicon Valley wasn't under the same amount

of scrutiny as the Body Harvest guys,” says Jamie.
“Miyamoto and his team were over and there was

quite a lot of pressure on those guys to really create
something, and it was a really small team as well.”

g nterestingly, this decision resulted in a

! / certain degree of envy directed at the Silicon
Valley team: it was relatively hidden from

a the attention of Nintendo, amd DMA Design
had given it free reign, and the N64 itself was the
console to develop for at the time. “VWWVhen | first
started the N64 was just like this amazing, wonderful
console that could do everything,” says Jamie. “So this
was kind of cutting edge tech and it was such a joy to
be on it, everyone wanted to be on N64.” As a result,
those DMA developers still stuck working on PC — even
the GTA team — were looking to Jamie and his team
with a little jealousy. “No one was that keen on being
on GTA in the early days,” says Jamie, “because it was
seen as the poor man’s project, with old technology.”
Jamie adds that, somewhat ironically, Grand Theft
Auto had “seemed like the lesser project” at the time
because of how dated it looked.

Silicon Valley rattled on for quite some time after the
release of GTA in 1997. The two began development in
1995 but Silicon Valley would finally release in October
1998. A gestation period for refining the mechanics
had ultimately drawn the title out, an unavoidable
drawback of the freeform development process that
DMA Design preferred to adopt. “I kind of liked that
nobody really understood what they were doing,”
admits Jamie, “but that was the beauty of it, because

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. THE MAKING OF: SPACE STATION SILICON VALLEY

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it was the time for experimentation. Even down to the
control configurations: we came up with some really
weird control configurations — like ‘why don’t we use
two controls to control a leg each?’, things like that.
Your hands were kind of crying in pain by the end of it
because you were just mapping buttons anywhere you
thought they might work.”

If || this experimentation and iteration
| | | resulted in a game that was compelling to
| | anyone who played it. “Quite a lot of artists
B Ban programmers would just come over to
see it,” recalls Jamie. “| mean, compared to the other
games, we were doing quite well. There were a lot of
other teams who were really struggling and weren't
producing anything close to a finished game.” But nor
were there any expectations placed on Silicon Valley,
either; while GTA had now released and become a
proven success, the PlayStation had also taken over as
the console to develop for and the potential Nintendo
buyout had collapsed, ultimately leaving Silicon Valley
as just “this thing that was being developed”. Things
weren't helped much with DMA‘s sale to Gremlin
Interactive, a necessity since the developer was
running out of money — likely due to the extended

and uncontrolled development times and the rapid
expansion to gear up for the new consoles. This would
be “the death of DMA", as Jamie puts it, since the
creative and inspiring environment would immediately
give way to stricter control, the hiring of producers and

an insistence on working overtime that naturally didn't
sit right with this community of passionate creatives.
The atmosphere of the company changed dramatically
almost overnight resulting in some rather unpleasant
changes that left a sense of resentment in much of

the workforce, from the sudden appearance of a large
picture of the owner being put up in the entrance, or
the operations manager who brazenly admitted that he
“doesn't care about games” in his first meeting. “It was
kind of clear right from the start that it was more about
money,” recalls Jamie, “and this was different to the
DMA way of thinking where the games came first and
enjoying the things you make.” Jamie left the company
just before the release of Space Station Silicon Valley,
unwilling to endure the corporate face of Gremlin, and

it wasn't long before the rest of the team did the same.
Though the game was released to great praise, no one
could've have predicted that it was the last true example
of what could be created from DMA’s unrestricted
attitude towards creative development. ¥

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ey! Listen! When it comes to real industry game
changers, they don’t come much bigger or influential
than The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.
Developed in tandem with Super Mario 64, the hero of
time's N64 debut would land two years later (in 1998) but would
arguably have a larger impact on the design and direction of 3D
adventure games in the years to follow. Ocarina Of Time established
the template for the genre; it impressed with its bold and intricate
dungeon design, engaging narrative and vast, sprawling overworld.
In Ocarina Of Time, Nintendo didn’t just have the technical prowess
and creativity to make a fantastic game that would stand the test of
time, but the courage and ingenuity to make one that would become
truly revolutionary.
Looking back, it is easy enough to draw parallels between Ocarina
Of Time and other innovative 3D games of the time, questioning the
game's resonance through the decades in the process. Argonaut

140. | 100 GAMES TO)PLAY BEFORE. YOU DIE

OCARINA OF TIME

RELEASED: 1998 PUBLISHER: NINTENDO DEVELOPER: NINTENDO EAD SYSTEM: N64

Largely considered to be the greatest game of all time and one of the
most important releases of the modern era, the hero of time’s N64
adventure is a classic that every gamer should play

Software's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Core Design’s Tomb
Raider and, of course, Nintendo's own Super Mario 64, being the
obvious examples — each arriving some years earlier — but still Link's
adventure is so revered to this day, credited with evolving a genre,
but why is that?

Perhaps it's because Ocarina Of Time had it all. That isn't an
overstatement either; we're just giving credit where credit is due.
In Zelda, Nintendo was able to provide a compelling showcase for
the N64 — just as many were ready to call time on the 32-bit era
of gaming. It began life as one of the first 3D projects at Nintendo
EAD, with every aspect of the game (from its central game
mechanics to its evocative world design) arriving as the result of wild
experimentation and careful iteration. It's a game born from creativity
— in 1994 when development first began there wasn’t anything of its
scale to compare it with. The result is a technical masterpiece. Many
of the actions and mechanics exhibited in Ocarina Of Time might be

GAME CHANGERS: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME

=] SS

THE COOLEST AND MOST MEMORABLE
FIGHTS IN OCARINA OF TIME

PHANTOM GAN SHADOW LINK TWINROVA

* Arriving in a spectacular fashion, just as Link attempts
to leave the haunted gallery, Phantom Ganon is a
fantastically challenging battle that also gives us a hint
as to what could have been had development of the game
gone differently.

commonplace now, but that’s because their debut here struck such
a chord with developers across the globe. While Super Mario 64
showed a generation how camera control and navigating 3D spaces
should and could work successfully, it was Ocarina Of Time that
showed how gaming had finally evolved to let us truly exist in, and
interact, with a living, breathing 3D world.

Context-sensitive actions and the introduction of lock-on
Z-Targeting are just two of the staples of the genre that Ocarina
Of Time introduced: enduring innovations that solved many of the
problems that plagued playability in those few 3D action-adventure
games released before it. The sprawling vastness of the Hyrule

6 6Context-sensitive actions
and the introduction of lock-
on Z-Targeting are just two of
the genre staples that Ocarina
Of Time introduced 99

overworld created a sense of unrivalled wonder and place, though it
was your interaction within it that made it truly ground-breaking.

And to think, we almost didn’t receive Hyrule as it is now at all. At
the time, Ocarina Of Time was the largest game Nintendo had ever
tried to create, and Shigeru Miyamoto had big concerns over the
storage memory capacity of the N64's cartridge. The solution was to
engineer a hub area similar to that of Super Mario 64's painting-filled
castle, where Link would warp to the various areas and dungeons
of Hyrule through portals out of Ganondorf's towering structure — a
process of development that ultimately led to the incarnation of the
boss battle with Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple.

Thankfully, Nintendo found a solution to its problems — creating a
sparse, realistic game world that cleverly echoed the narrative and
invited exploration — and that led to some of the most breathtaking
moments of Ocarina Of Time. While a lot has been said over the
years of the invocative time-travel mechanic Nintendo used — the
sheer scope of Hyrule was, well, breathtaking. At the time a world
that large, teeming with NPCs and enemies, interconnected

* Many players may loathe the Water Temple, but it
happened to give us one of the coolest encounters in
The Legend Of Zelda history. It’s full of twists and turns,
memorable not because of its challenge but because of
its symmetry to your own fighting style.

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staple of boss fights in the Zelda franchise.

Play using elire

» Link's ocarina had a variety of uses, including warping to new areas.

pathways, dungeons and hub areas, were an unimaginable feet of
technical engineering.

But there it all was, a game world encouraging exploration and
experimentation. That combined with a masterful set of dungeon
designs that pushed players to explore areas long-forgotten and
new corners of the map with a litany of interesting new gadgets
and items (many of which reimagined cleverly from older, influential
titles in the series). And yet through it all, through so much to see,
do and love, Nintendo underpinned the entire experience with a
modern tragedy; Ocarina Of Time undermined the obvious joy that
was to be found in its inherent mastery with a tragic story of cyclical
destruction and failure. Ocarina Of Time was an adult story, one that
would inform a generation of creators to push the boundaries on the
type of stories that could be explored in videogames.

Ocarina Of Time changed the face of modern game design. It
introduced so many concepts, pushed so many boundaries and
rewrote the playbook on so many mechanics and systems that its
influence is almost impossible to accurately track. There's a reason
Ocarina Of Time is largely considered to be the greatest game of all
time and that's because there has never been another game like it:
beautiful and haunting, joyful and daunting, playing through Ocarina Of
Time is a defining experience, for game creators and players alike. ¥€

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEPORE YOU BIE | 141

THE FEATURES
THAT MADE

LEGENDARY

It wasn’t just about being a 3D zelda as these elements helped
elevate it to one of the best games of all time

Attacking enemies in a 3D space was always a little cumbersome in 3D action-
adventure games. Or at least, it was until Ocarina Of Time arrived with its ingenious
Z-Targeting lock-on system. A staple of the genre today, it allowed the player to
intuitively snap the camera to an enemy, giving Link the freedom to circle and strafe
around monsters without losing the ability to follow or dish out attacks; where
would we be today without such an important game system?

Super Mario 64 is a classic, a showcase for the brilliance of Nintendo in the
Nineties, but it also showcased some of the pitfalls of platform navigation ina
3D space. As the two games were developed in tandem, it gave the team plenty
of time to make adjustments and tweaks to the controls and camera, ultimately
ensuring that — by the time that Ocarina Of Time was released — it handled far more
confidently in the tight dungeon enclosures.

ee by

ee Uy

GAME CHANGERS: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME

With so many actions available to the player —- many of which were new to gaming
- Nintendo massively simplified the control system to ensure play was as smooth
as possible. Context-sensitive actions allowed multiple tasks to be assigned to one
button, cutting the fuss of learning too many controls and also subtly guiding the
player around its environments — it let Link adventure without worry, only being
given the option to move boxes or climb when Nintendo deemed it possible.

One of the coolest aspects of Zelda games was the inclusion of an overworld,
a hub that linked all levels, dungeons and areas together. This was expanded
massively for OOT, a space that was large enough to make you feel like you were
asmall part of a world that existed around you. If you could see it, you could reach
it - even if that meant searching out specific items and returning later. The sparse,
realistic Hyrule overworld is still one of Nintendo's greatest accomplishments.

Unlike most other Nintendo games released at the time — in which mechanics took
precedence over all else - OOT had story at its centre. While joyful to playthrough, it
had a dark undertone of loss and tragedy. Link’s journey across timelines, to stop
a disaster he inadvertently had a hand in creating, has proven to be one of gaming's
greatest; the time-travel mechanics, be they via the Ocarina or Master Sword, were a
powerful way of dragging players wholeheartedly into the adventure.

The temples in OOT are a marvel of 3D design and execution, with each offering
challenge and reward to players ready to push their understanding of the combat
and platforming mechanics. Even the Water Temple, largely considered to be the
toughest challenge in the game and a headache for players the world over, has
proven itself to be a masterclass in spatial awareness, demonstrating a willingness
to challenge convention and take risks in every area of game design.

All throughout the adventure, Link will acquire and collect different items and
weapons that greatly expand the adventure. Many introduced new abilities, with
Nintendo gradually introducing them through well-masked tutorials in the guise of
puzzle solving before letting you loose with them in boss battles and, eventually, the
overworld to access new areas. It has proven to be a staple of Zelda design, not to je
mention a process carried across into various other genres and game types.

The Legend Of Zelda boss design has always been fairly simple: find the flashing
bit of the enemy and hit it with whatever new item has just been gifted to you. That's
okay though, because OOT masked this with memorable and striking encounters.
Zelda bosses made a wonderful transition into 3D, always looking large enough to
make the task ahead seem implausibly difficult, with impossibly-tight mechanics
making it seem ultimately achievable.

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PCMag
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RARE'S TOP DOUBLE-

MARTIN HOLLIS | KARL HILTON DAVID DOAK

Making the Producer and director Scenic art director Original screenplay
¥ Peat ie emst nd LEN Cotha ta entmel bid Favourite Bond film:
Ua 3 ed From Russia With Love The Spy Who Loved Me Goldfinger
Preferred multiplayer mode: Preferred multiplayer mode: Preferred multiplayer mode:
Archives — Licence To Kill CeCoyaaTe) (yee cre) (1a RCU Lea) Temple - One-shot kills

ten kills. And no radar!

MARK EDMONDS

Temple - Grenade launchers
and Licence To kill

BACK IN 2019 WE G

GOLDENEYE'S ORIGINAL
THE CREATION AND LEG

ATHERED TOGETHER

PAUL DRURY SHAKES THE VODKA MARTINIS

amers knew the score in the
Nineties. Rare made platformers,
you played first-person shooters
on PC and any game based on
a film was going to be awful. Then came
GoldenEye 007 and changed all that.

It was released two years after the film
had hit the big screen, only a few months
before the next entry in the franchise,
Tomorrow Never Dies, came out, and with
no great expectations of success, even from
the team that had developed it. It went on to
shift a staggering 8 million copies, making
it the third biggest selling title on Nintendo’s
64-bit console, and invariably appears in
the echelons of those perennial ‘Best Ever
Games’ lists. It also made number ten in
Retro Gamer's definitive countdown in issue
150, in case you were wondering.

That success is perhaps even more
remarkable when you consider that for the
majority of the dev team, GoldenEye was
their first professional title. Indeed, Tim
and Chris Stamper, the heads of Rare, had
to remind the team that “this wasn’t their
university project” as development dragged
on for over three years. Yet the fact that

wo </
B JONES

Director of photography Costume designer
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AS Vi=lI( Goldfinger
Preferred multiplayer mode: Preferred multiplayer mode:

Stack — First to 20 kills,
Cael CMa ny

STEVE ELLIS

most of the team were new to the business
meant they weren't constrained with notions
of what was and wasn’t possible in game
design. If they thought of a good idea, they
tried to implement it.

This naivety yielded some groundbreaking
results. The game pioneered body-specific
hit reactions, disconnecting the gun from the
camera, the use of a sniper rifle, environment
mapping (look closely and you'll see low-
res reflections of your surroundings on
shiny surfaces) and even dual-wielding of
weapons, all features which have become
fixtures in the shooter landscape. More than
that, GoldenEye proved that a story-driven
FPS could work on consoles... and that
deathmatches never really get old.

Gathering together all nine core members
of the team has been inspiring. Some stayed
at Rare and worked on its spiritual sequel
Perfect Dark. Some went on to set up Free
Radical, the home of the TimeSplitters series.
Some have stayed in games, others have
moved on but all can agree on two things:
being part of the GoldenEye team was an
experience they will never forget and playing
as Oddjob in multiplayer is always cheating.

GRAEME

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Duele) /e(- a MMI OR EMS M eae) een LIT

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

\\
gus aR NANI OM OSS)

DEVELOPMENT TEAM TO SA aa Us elenN

ACY OF THEIR SEMINAL N64 SHOOTER.

100 GAMES T

DUNCAN BOTWOOD
Production designer
Favourite Bond film:

OMe me) Nes et 1esl 18 (62

Preferred multiplayer mode:
Non None 1 CRON

oles (CS

AY BEFORE YOU DIE | 145

POLISHING GOLDENEYE
MARK EDMONDS ON DEVELOPING A FIRST-CLASS FPS

or Mark Edmonds, his

first contribution to the

development of GoldenEye

was sat alone in a room in
the Stamper mansion, filleting joints.

“| didn’t really know what |
was working on,” explains Mark,
understandably. “I was asked to
investigate creating filleted joints for
an animated 3D character system;
basically, a smooth skin over joints,
like an elbow, rather than just having
a solid block for an upper and lower
arm. | had no idea it was connected to
James Bond but | must have passed
the test because | got moved over to
the stable block and onto the team
proper. It was great just to be working
on my first videogame!”
Programmer Mark joined project

leader Martin Hollis and artist Karl
Hilton and the trio got to work on
early builds of GoldenEye. Initially,
the game was heavily influenced
by Sega’s Virtua Cop with Bond
following a predetermined route
through levels. “We were using this
amazing new invention called the
analogue stick to aim a crosshair,”
grins Mark. “But then we thought,
‘Wouldn't it be cool to play a game

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like Doom with actual 3D graphics?
That would be a new experience!’
And we knew the Nintendo 64 was
capable of rendering 3D graphics
from any orientation or direction.”
The team decided to take Bond
‘off the rails’, though knowing
exactly what the N64 was capable
of required a good deal of faith. Its
development system used high-end
Silicon Graphics machines, a pleasure
to work with, if prone to overheating,
whilst the specifications of Nintendo’s
forthcoming console were yet to be
finalised. “| vaguely remember being
disappointed seeing the tech demos

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BAN (IA (43) 3

USING THIS
AMAZING NEW
INVENTION
CALLED [THE
‘ANALOGUE
STICK”

Mark Edmonds

running on the first development
consoles,” admits Mark.,“But once
our own artists got goingonto the
project, they managed to make the
graphics look good!” XY

Mark beavered away onthe ™
GoldenEye engine, taking art created
in such packages as Alias and
GameGen and rendering them in
game. He helped develop the system
which handled the motion captured
animations, pioneering in their day,
and worked on the enemy-Al, so your
foes could at least attempt to outwit
your agent before crumpling in agony
when you shot.them in the groin. Yet
despite all these innovative features,
the team really wasn’tsure anyone
else would be impressed.

“It was amazing to travel to the E3
show in 1997 but | don’t remember
much reaction to the game there,”
says Mark. “It probably wasn’t the
right environment for people to get
into it. It was only afterwards when
the reviews started coming that |
realised people actually did like it.”

reaction to being
told you were to
head up a team
making a Bond game?
Oh, | wasn’t approached. I'd heard
on the grapevine, from my team
leader on Killer Instinct, Mark Betteridge, | think,
that the Bond licence was floating around. A couple
of guys from the Donkey Kong Country team were
going down to a press party for the film GoldenEye
and Nintendo had told its friends at Rare there was
a possibility we could make a game to go with it.
Later, | heard they weren't going to take on the
licence, so | went straight to Tim Stamper and said

Was he delighted you had

stepped up to the yet mcyel--F4
He didn't look chuffed or anything. He just said,
‘Well, you better make a document then, Martin.’
So | did. And it was all my own work, teacher.

ideas, from the variety of

| never really looked at it after a while. Once

we were 20 per cent in, we just concentrated

on making the game, not what I'd written. It's
astonishing how much from the document made it
into the final game. That was partly luck.

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

Of course | wanted good people, enthusiastic
about the Bond universe... though not all of them
were. They were just incredibly good craftspeople.
| actually made a list of everyone in the company
involved with development and scored them out of
ten. | wrote notes on the side, too, and | spoke to
Simon Farmer in production about each one and
he'd tell me, ‘Oh, you don't want them...’ He knew if
they were suitable for the project.

You sound a bit like M from
the Bond films, with a dossier

Well, | did wear all black at the time and had a
confident swagger. It's hard to know how they
viewed me. | was the only one who had made a
game professionally before. Rare tended to hire
people not from the games industry.

Was there an advantage to this
being their first game — paeeaa
TORTS cl Rot Meer Mmaztccaa

they couldn't do?

Oh certainly. | didn't know what we couldn't do
either. It was supposed to be a three person project
and take nine months or something. No one told
me it would take three years and about ten people
because no one knew.

Given it took so long to
develop, were the Stamper

FOTN Wma RONEN COME ROLE N=) 10 CDV LEIIV eee elme SVE

'I_WASN'T EXPECTING
THIS, MR_BOND,' MARTIN
RECEIVES A GOLDENEYE

It’s astonishing how little bother we got from them.
They had the whole company to administer plus the
financial agreement meant GoldenEye was a low
risk project for Rare. And they might have been a
little bit frightened of me. Why? | was extremely
self-assured. That's putting it nicely. The Stampers
created the environment, they hired the people

| could pick from, we never had to worry about

the project being cancelled or being forced ina
different direction and we had their trust. Their
role was huge.

Didn't Nintendo, worried about
the violence that took place
in the game, ask you to put
FRMMo icicle Comic Mn tomes ake) acral
level, showing everyone who
had been killed getting up and
Sehobe sme ictnc crs

Yes, and | know when you read that it seems

ridiculous but you have to look deeper at feedback
like that. It was all about the close up killing. You
could see the pain and suffering - they'd get down
on their knees and then you'd shoot them again in
the head. It felt personal. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t
sit well with Nintendo. | was trying to negotiate a
line between being true to Bond and Nintendo's
family-friendly brand. We did soften some things
round the edge — | think we dialled down the
redness of the blood by 20 per cent.

Were you pleased you literally

Many people at Rare, Nintendo and the world

in general have been incredibly nice to me, for
decades! GoldenEye is such a good thing to have on
your CV and was such a pleasure to make.

WE'VE LOST COUNT OF THE foreacor WASTED

BOND BLUEPRINTS

wIT'S HARD TO SAY WHEN THIS WAS DONE, AS THE

RAN FOR TWO YEARS, I THINK THE BLUE

DOTS WILL BE FROM DAVID DOAK, SHOWING Leesa A

SPAWN POINTS FOR GUARDS. THE LEVEL (26h aD

ORIGINALLY BEEN BUILT VERY CLOSE TO THIS

DESIGN, BUT THEN, AS WE ACTUALLY LOE Us)

IN_AND MAKE CHANGES

BASED ON DAVE'S REQUESTS; BLOCKING A VIEW _OR
OPENING

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DM LEVEL THAT WE DID. INITIALLY, WE TRIED
SOME ADAPTED IN-GAME LEVELS, LIKE THE
FACILITY, TO SEE HOW IT WORKED. TOWARDS
— J THE END OF THE PROJECT, AFTER THE

LEVELS. LOOKING AT THE LAYOUT, IT IS CLEAR
TER op VT TT ECT)
STEW AA CCRT a a
LEVEL DESIGNS BEGAN WITH A BASIC FLOOR
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Gani CRASHES IN TO THE SEVERNAYA
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CHEAT MASTER
THE BEST GOLDENEYE CHEATS, AND HOW TO UNLOCK THEM

PAINTBALL MODE

§ This aesthetic option swaps out all the bullet holes in the game for
lovely splotches of brightly coloured paint. Unfortunately it doesn’t
affect characters so you can't paint enemies with it.

UNLOCK IT BY: Speed your way through the Dam level on Secret
PNT al aantele Mae Re Lm (1

DK MODE

tM eM en OU ere meni elae ole CHL egret cm aalele (ity
to give them giant heads, tiny bodies and oversized arms. Needless to
say it makes it very easy to get headshots with it activated.
UNLOCK IT BY: Finishing the Runway stage in less than five
minutes. Even Boris could do that.

ISA (OID

@ GoldenEye can be pretty tough and some of the later stages are
phenomenally hard. Take away some of the pain by making James
Bond invincible to everything in the game.

UNLOCK IT BY: Get through Facility on 00 Agent mode in 2:05
alarm a

ALL GUNS

@ Why would you not want access to every gun in the game? Of
course you would. You can even access the tank using this. Just be
ENT Mula -r-] eR ea eee RTT Ta) Anat

UNLOCK IT BY: Complete Egyptian on 00 Agent difficulty in

Sau ome lm alec

COUGAR MAGNUM

TINY BOND

t MUa Malin Reals 1 nen em OLR COMaT-lUMVolU MU L0T- 16 Pon Wa CR UTS
viewpoint does take a while to get used to, it does mean that all
enemies find it very hard to hit you. Use this to your advantage.
UNLOCK IT BY: Blast your way through Surface 2 on 00 Agent
mode in 4:15 or under.

TURBO MODE

@ Make things alittle easier for yourself by greatly increasing Bond's
mobility, which should make it a lot simpler to escape guards and
get yourself out of tricky situations. It does take a while to master,
though, so persevere with it.

UNLOCK IT BY: Finish Silo using Agent mode in 3:00 or less.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 149

MEET THE CAST OF GOLDENEYE

@ Mercenary Xenia is incredibly dangerous
and likes to kill men by squeezing them to
death between her thighs. In the film she’s
PEN Le VA grelaal Cla -10

§ This hacker ends up accompanying Bond
Cee SOS Cm uel nce
each other as prisoners. Izabella Scorupco
(eyoyercaamanal alt

@ You first meet 006 during the second
mission, but see him executed by Colonel
LOTT anal solar olen Ke ee a aeRO]
and is Janus. He's played by Sean Bean.

[Neeley Vee delle a RCo RII)
TMM ULM ice nae Maer) 029)
satellite. Pierce Brosman plays the iconic role
and would do for a further three films.

@ The rogue Russian general is a thorn
in Bond's side for most of the Arkangelsk
ASMA cee ICN ceh NACL Te ean

“Invincible” computer hacker Boris trips
EC nse aes cureea Cm TU a
and then pulls a gun on the secret agent. He's
played by Alan Cumming.

OM EB wae
MO-CAP SERVICE |

DUNCAN BOTWOOD ON FALLING OVER A LOT

“l often say, ‘I died a thousand
times for GoldenEye 007 ne
says Duncan Botwood, whose
dedication to making the game the
best it could be involved physical
as well as mental strength. On
top of his role as game designer,
shaping mission structure as well as the layout
of levels, he became the reference model for the
various agonising reactions when enemies took a

DUNCAN BACKSTAGE AT E3 IN 1997.

hit. “Motion Capture data was good at picking

up very human movements like flinching, and
you could easily tell the difference between

me throwing myself on the floor versus me

being pushed to the floor. So | had to stand in
Position with my eyes shut so | didn't flinch,

and B [Jones] would walk quietly up to me and
shove me hard to make me fall over.

Multiply that by eight per position because of
covering all the angles and you get a full coverage
of animations... and bruises.”

Duncan, who stayed at Rare until the end

of the Noughties and now works for Ubisoft in
Canada, assures us it was worth the pain. “I'm sure
GoldenEye has opened doors for me, though my
favourite part has been people coming up to me
at work saying they played it at college with their

§ This Russian gangster helps James Bond
out in a couple of levels, as he doesn’t want
Tao ual ral late Mel Cet On aoe)
PDE TTe RAM UaTeManCOy U(M oy Ane) oOo] UTA

@ Mishkin captures Bond and takes him to
Trey Urea a NIL UE] UVALe na Uae e
Malem Lene Aan OBC] Cela Tale Ball a
He's portrayed by Tchéky Karyo.

SWESs a OMe DOV 1 a Pe Eh
NOTES FOR POSSIBLE MISSION ELEMENTS.

friends, or at home with their family, and loved it.
It's great to know that people had such a positive
experience and | never tire of hearing it.”

He also mentions he specifically designed the
Egyptian temple to have high ceilings because
he liked using the grenade launcher trajectories
to bounce grenades off the top of doors he was
running through to take out people chasing him.
Now there's a tip for your next deathmatch, folks!

BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

WRITER DAVID DOAK ON GOLDENEYE'S LEVEL DESIGN

avid Doak smiles rather
proudly when we ask him
about the legacy of his
innovative work on mission
design and enemy Al for GoldenEye.
“My favourite moment was meeting
the original Valve guys at ECTS, a UK
trade show, in 1998 and them joking

Bra had forced them to
redo-a.bunch of stuff on Half-Life. They

went on to do all right.”
When David joined the team in late

1995, plenty of the basic gameplay was

in place. The controls were responsive,
the coreloop of ‘encounter enemy,
shoot them,move to next’ worked
efficiently andthe audio and visuals
gave solid feedback. “The obvious
STURM tar m1 RRM LAN
barebones,” he ex lains. “They had
been constructed to test gameplay,
though even at this stage, there were
innovative features
itateM-lanleyi (relarom colada)
alarm system in Se’
It could be triggered
ran to press a big rei

eing’ Bond. The
day was Doom,
ting monsters and

collecting coloured keys to open doors

De ON Ua CCR a CIC IRS ra nei
Nr Teva lite ee em Lee

and we really wanted to step away
from that.”

Though David acknowledges that at
its most basic, this involved reskinning
the ‘keycard’ concept with decoders,
covert modems and all manner of
gadgetry, he was determined to
vary the pace and rhythm of levels.
“Severnaya Bunker 1 has a lovely, juicy
density to it,” he enthuses, “a very
simple, small space but, particularly on
higher difficulties, there is a lot to do
with juggling objectives, alarms and
enemies. The Bunker 2 cell escape was
pleasing to set up; the stealth came
together well and was something that
felt fresh, in a pre-Metal Gear Solid

“SEVERNAYA BUNKER 1 HAS A
LOVELY, JUICY DENSITY TO IT”

David Doak

DERM TCL tM eer TE Y A

ele VMLO)\F
LOCATION

JETTING AROUND THE
WORLD WITH BOND

SEVERNAYA

SiS) A0 0m
This tough level requires
Bond to make his way into a
eT Moola Cred ol0] nl <a ey
tricky as there's lots of open
Colcol ao -DaTeA UA Uke (1

BUNKER 1

Lire eae
Siberia and have to navigate
this underground base.

la UTC Alee Gel-lale)
built and not heavily armed.

pol S)aay eed

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iy Ua eR ORV ERI}
it's a tough one. It's hard to
aR Velen 1K)
ETc Mel VT ee T Ve AN es

BONA ees

@ You start this stage holed
up in jail next to Natalaya.
SUA CE Rolle Rice eR elN]
fal-tstoR OMCl-) eal Tact M al Ne
Paul RUM

Lc Tol TT, elie} Successfully ro)

» GoldenEye isn't just about ki

aT)
you to bug re ee SRT SMe eV 9 require

UCR TRO ea nae

and Thief world. And obviously Facility
is a continuing source of chuckles that
Dr Doak is in there...”

Yes, David makes a prominent
cameo as the scientist/secret agent,
though most of the team are featured
somewhere in the game, whether as
the faces of nameless guards or doing
silly turns on computer monitors.
Despite being satisfied with the variety
of mission goals and interesting level
design the team achieved, David is the
first to admit not everything they tried
quite came off. “Some level setups
were exercises in damage limitation.
For the more open levels like Runway
and Depot, it was hard to construct
meaningful gameplay and the results
are patchy. And the Escort missions
seemed like a good idea at the time.
| mean, what could possibly be more
fun that having your performance
judged on whether Natalya would
randomly throw her head in the path
of a bullet or walk into an explosion?”

Notwithstanding a few misfires,
the story mode was groundbreaking
in offering the player choices. Should
you go in with all golden guns blazing
or use your license to kill sparingly?
Guards could be sneaked past but
how satisfying it proved to take out
goons with a flurry of headshots.

The way your foes responded to your
actions and the surprising, sometimes
exasperating, interventions of NPCs all
created the sense that this was a living,
bleeding world.

“Refining the Al was largely a
process of brokering deals with Mark
Edmonds,” says David. “I'd make my
case that a feature would allow me to
script a more interesting setup, Mark
would shake his head, explain how it
wasn’t possible then go back to his
desk and do some coding wizardry to
make it happen. Legend.”

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 151

DRESSED TO KILL

B JONES ON KEEPING THE STYLE AND DESIGN AUTHENT

foley VMte)\E
LOCATION

JETTING AROUND THE
WORLD WITH BOND

KIRGHIZSTAN

bg
a

SILO

LBM ee Rell eae
you have to navigate
bland-looking environments
and plant explosives in all the
fuel rooms.

MONTE CARLO

i
a Ee

FRIGATE

@ Bond's stop in Monte Carlo
is so he can plant a bug ona
very dangerous helicopter.
Unfortunately it's stashed
away on an armoured ship.

m@ Congratulations, you've
ileal Rel Rem UL eeg le
levels of the game, which is
based on the classic Bond
film, Moonraker.

(oo

J a7

Va a.
by = fs ‘i
Perey ele Aaa.

Meco aceon AU al (ore)
after completing all the other
levels on 00 Agent setting.
You need to grab the Golden
Gun and stop Baron Samedi.

LYM ome Na) 2e) eel) |

n the GoldenEye credits,

B Jones role is listed as

‘costume designer’. It

might be a tongue-in-cheek
reference to the world of film, but
it proved surprisingly apt as no one
is more adept at fashioning a pixel
tuxedo than she is. “We originally
had three other Bonds in the game,”
she explains. “| had to make different
tuxedo textures within a 64x32 pixel
texture. Moore got the white one with
the carnation, Dalton got the double
breasted and Connery got the classic
Sixties tux. And all their faces came
from my reference books.”

With no handy internet libraries to
consult in the mid-Nineties, much of
the look of GoldenEye came from B’s
extensive collection of Bond books
and memorabilia. Character photos
were scanned, gadget manuals were
carefully studied and lunchtimes
were spent watching the Bond back-
catalogue on videotape. “We only had
a half hour break so we’d get through
them in 20 minute segments and it
took ages,” she laughs.

The team did have some access
to the film set and lugged their
swanky new digital camera to
Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire
to photograph as much as they could.
“That camera was huge, really heavy
and cost about two grand,” she
remembers, “but it was how we got
most of our reference material, like
for Statue Park and inside the main
Archanglsk complex both before and
after it was blown up. | used that
same camera to take the photos of
faces we used in the game. | would
take front, side and back of the head
shots and stitch them together. This

ASCE erect accolades at E3 in 1998.

Une eee SRA Ts ovat SRNR ULM se Bslenn te eet
Jue} CG) } ry g
Li Ua) d TUL Beier] it

IC FOR GOLDENEYE

— .

“WE ORIGINALLY HAD THREE
OTHER BONDS IN THE GAME”

1S ea)

was before Photoshop so all | had
was this pixel painter called NinGen
and just 38x32 pixels for the textures.
You try drawing any believable
human face in that!”

Two decades on and it’s quite
easy to raise a Roger Moore-esque
eyebrow at the blocky heads in
the game but at the time, this was
pioneering work, as was the use of
motion-capture to give character
movement a sense of realism. The
initial setup was a ‘flock of birds’
magnetic system in which all of the
markers on the body were directly
attached to the computer by
cables. “The capturing unit was
mounted halfway up one wall
and you had to be quite careful
with the moves or else it would

Peed MVEA URNS Ue
you're not supposed to.

st effective use of
Igy was in making
your foes look like you'd really
slugged them. Shoot them in the
shoulder and they would recoil in
pain; shoot them in the head and
they’d crumple to the floor. “We
wanted the animations to look like the
victim wasn’t expecting it),so we got
[team member] Duncan Bottwood to
close his eyes and Id suddenly slap
him on the shoulder without telling
him. We didn’t want that split second
of bracing to be visible in the capture.
We even had ropes tied around his
waist to pull him off his feet. We had
plenty of soft mats around but! don’t
think we could have got away with it
in today’s health and safety-
conscious environment...”

It was this attention to detail in
every aspect of GoldenEye's visuals
that helped makethe game so
immersive. Since leaving Rare, B
has worked in film and TV, including
credits on Doctor Who and Guardians
Of The Galaxy, but still keeps in touch
with her old coding buddies. We
wonder if she ever felt conscious of
being the only woman on the team
or if gender stereotypes ever got in
the way? “No and no, and clearly you
don’t know me,” she replies, bluntly.

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

SOME LEVELS LET YOU DUAL-WIELD.
ALTERNATIVELY, CHEAT, THEN
EVERY LEVEL OFFERS IT.

HE SOUND _OF Co MD) dona e

When you joined the

ll GoldenEye team, did

the easiest gig in
Patten glee Mn MES ATCcRS
need to do a version
of the theme tune!'?
GN: It was certainly a massive
headstart having the Bond theme to
play around with, but I never thought
it was going to be an easy ride. A
good theme played badly is still
going to absolutely stink! | originally
approached the music with more ‘variations on
the theme’ rather than using segments of the
theme itself, so tracks like the Train and the Depot
are more in the style of Bond soundtracks. Then |
thought to myself, ‘Stop trying to be a clever dick
and just use the flipping melodies!’
GK: Graeme asked me to work on GoldenEye with
him as he was so busy with Blast Corps. | had a
total love for Bond so getting to mess around with
that iconic theme was the best thing ever!

OHMSS

00 Agent: James Bond
Mission 6: St. Petersburg
Part iii; Streets

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES

a. Contact Valentin
b, Pursd@ Ourumov and Natalya
c, Minimize civilian casualties

EVEN THE WEEDIEST WEAPON CAN

CAUSE MASSIVE DAMAGE IF YOU
USE IT TO SHOOT OIL DRUMS.

GN: True, the N64 was the only console

using cartridges at the time, and with CD you
didn't have to worry about RAM limitations.

But a cartridge system was more versatile
compared to using CD back then, given that

we wanted to give the game music some

degree of interactivity. For instance, on the
Severnaya Bunker level, if an alarm detects the
player, the music changes. It's a simple change,
but seamless. With a late Nineties CD system, the
music would pause while the laser was seeking
the appropriate track. A knackered disc or worn
out machine and that could be a few seconds...
you could have been killed in that time! Plus with
a CD, you were limited to about 45 minutes for the
soundtrack and we clocked up over two hours for
GoldenEye in the end.

Let's get techy - what kind

GK: | was using Cubase as my DAW (Digital Audio
Workstation) and | got most of the sounds from

a Roland JV 1080 and an EMU Proteus FX. I'd
sample instruments and then squash them down
as small as they could go without them sounding
too horrendous and then get them into the N64 so
| could use them.

GN: For the first four months, | didn’t have N64
hardware so | was writing using synths and

Graeme Norgate

samplers with the knowledge that the ‘Ultra 64’,
as it was known then, would be able to play 100
sounds at once. The SNES only had eight sound
channels so this was paradise. Or so | thought.
Note to self: don’t believe the hype. It was possible
to play that many sounds as long as you didn't
want to do anything else, like display graphics, so
12 to 16 simultaneous notes seemed to be a good
compromise. After a couple of months of hard
work by Rare’s audio coder, we had noises coming
out of the hardware.

Audio can sometimes be an

afterthought when developing

GK: Not in the eyes of the people at Rare. All the
composers were really pushed to write the best
music they could. Tim Stamper was particularly
on the case when it came to music. He was always
asking us to think of ways to make it better.

RELOADING GOLDENEYE
RARE'S SEMINAL SHOOTER HAD ITS FAIR SHARE OF SPINOFFS

GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT
Sree hr XBOX, GAMECUBE, PS2
a : \ WEA previous three Bond games, Agent Under Fire, Nightfire and
Everything Or Nothing had done well commercially and this was a
‘sequel’ to the greatest Bond game of all time. What could go wrong?

Well everything really. It was incredibly weak, with mechanics largely
revolving around the abilities of your agent's literal golden eye.

GOLDENEYE 007

WieriaN VIRTUAL BOY
@ There's little info on this canned Virtual Boy game. Not even
the name of its publisher. Based on the information available at
LU kererta YM O01 Mare (Maal <clA olan cl recctte o-oo k eo 4
hit (the last Virtual Boy game was released in 1996) and it sounds like
a Roadblasters-inspired driving game.

GOLDENEYE 007

wil

® Activision's second Bond game remains the best-received game of
its four releases. The biggest change is that Pierce Brosnan has been
replaced with Daniel Craig. Mechanically it's been updated, too, taking
into account more modern FPS tropes like regenerating health and
(ol -coitat Colt] o) Ra cena SL

GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT
NINTENDO DS

@ While this is effectively a massively cut-down version of the home
console game it's nevertheless different enough to deserve its own
separate entry. This was one of the first first-person shooters to

be released on the console and it's surprisingly decent to play, too,
utilising a similar control system to the Metroid Prime Hunters.

GOLDENEYE 007

XBOX 360

LNG alaeele] (Mat \(-M olla Mele Dele acl LOR -Tecl ea nelm cle) e/g)
first arrived in 2008 but then development stalled. It wasn't until 2016
that popular Rare source, Rare Thief uploaded 30 minutes of footage
to YouTube, allowing gamers to see what would have most likely been
the definitive version of Rare's hit game.

pe LC hs

GOLDENEYE 007 RELOADED

eeu

ae mn Eee
reli lg ale ¢ ae 5 5
aon at ashed @ The success of Activision’s Wii game meant it received a HD port to
Nn ae the HD consoles of the time. The most obvious change to the game is
o Ks

enhanced graphics, but changes have been made elsewhere as well.
There's also a new M16 mode, which offers objective-based missions
Cleo Mea(e ela Madani Te

LICENCE TO THRILL
HOW RARE ADAPTED A BOND MOVIE FOR JOYPADS

arl Hilton can still
lt mE Let
Hollis popped the question.
“He opened with, ‘Do you
like James Bond?" chuckles, Karl, who
was the first person to join Martin on
the team as lead artist. “| was a big
= Bond fan and it sounded great fun
ee aM ECKMAN ieaice nella)
reputation that movie tie-in games
had back then. I'd just started at Rare
and knew they didn’t release bad
games but | do remember looking at
Blast Corps, which was being made
next doer to us, and thinking it would
probably fe Maa Maatelis fefoyele]t-Vamtat-la)
the movie-tie in we were starting on.”
Given some of the licensed dross
released prior to GoldenEye, Karl's
concerns were understandable, though
at least with their game they had some
support from the production company.
Visits to the studio allowed much
useful photography of sets, props and
costumes to be taken and the team
received a draft of the script. “We
weren't given any strict guidelines on

TWYCROSS BOARD OF GAME CLASSIFICATION

USEC ett MORSE eae Vise rn

{c) 1962, 1995 Daniag, LLC. &

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PRESIDENT
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tc eum ee Cus PC Ta ey ACR eum)

what we could do so we immediately
started ‘padding’ out the story to
generate more content,” explains Karl.
“We wanted to visit all of the major
locations even if Bond doesn’t go there
in the film. Plus we could use almost
anything from the Bond universe.”

Karl saw the potential for drawing
on the older Bond films he had grown
up with, particularly those starring
his favourite Bond, Roger Moore. He
initially wanted to include the Liparus
submarine base from The Spy Who
Loved Me but realising this was too
complex, he instead opted for the Drax
shuttle base from Moonraker. The
many nods to the wider Bond world
and the clever way the camera flew
into the back of 007’s head at the start
of each level really helped players
feel like they were morphing into the
suave secret agent. “We wanted to
emphasise that the player was James
Bond but in an FPS you rarely get a
chance to see yourself,” Karl says.
“This seemed like a perfect way to
remind the player. Roger Moore played
Bond, Pierce Brosnan was playing
Bond at the time, now you can step
into Bond's shoes, too.”

Subtle touches, like the cinematic
curtain of blood that descends the
screen when you die and the cuff
of your tuxedo clearly visible when
you check your watch for important
mission information, all added to that
authentic Bond feel. The watch also

aa ela le ale APry

DMN eMS resi ene) ) ei) e) ree el ¢ 10) 9-3
Solel eed (ery

“WE WANTED
TO EMPHASISE
SUS CMM UsID
PLAYER WAS
JAMES Bonb”

ela Gal (cela)

served another purpose, explains Karl.
“We all agreed that keeping screen
clutter to a minimum would give you
the most immersive feeling and the
watch helped you feel like you were
007 and not a generic FPS player.
Although we did always joke about
how short-sighted our Bond appeared
to be, staring at his watch so closely.”
Which brings us to our key
question: just how important was the
licence? The game was undeniably
an exceptionally well-crafted shooter,
with many innovative features, but
without Bond, would it have had the
same critical and commercial success?
“What could have been construed
as a violent first person shooter was
opened up to a much broader family
audience because, culturally, James
Bond is allowed to kill people and
not be seen as bad,” argues Karl. “It
meant children could ask parents for
the game! | hope it would have done
well anyway that but | doubt it would
have had the penetration into popular
culture that the James Bond link gave
it. | think Perfect Dark supports this to
some degree. It was, in almost every
way, superior to GoldenEye, as we'd
learned so much from our first game-
making attempt, yet it sold less than
half [the copies]. The chance to play as
James Bond is a great selling point.”

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

LOCATION,
LOCATION

JETTING AROUND THE
WORLD WITH BOND

ST PETERSBURGH

= :

SU -UNS) DF

tM e melee
in Russia's second biggest

oN em OLRM Coal
eRe ile e
Valentin Zukovsky.

ARCHIVES

@ The large level requires
you to escape from several
Pan MY n ata TR LA
rescue Natalaya.

aU UPS)

b Wia e-em VOR EN)
through the stage and it's
being timed, so you can't
eee CKelan tale MUlel dR
(eee eoo olla a

ees

tM eeelurme Ue ele ry
you trying to locate Alec
Trevelyan’s train. It's easier
said than done, though.

LBA Cia eel ese
Ce ge ae e- a

fle gM OLR CORI AOL y
through an incredibly
well-guarded train.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 155

Had Goldenkye's
multiplayer modes

\
A To be honest, | don’t remember
discussing multiplayer before we
Started doing it. We'd been too busy making the
rest of the game! It wasn’t until something like
April 1997 that work actually started on it and it

progressed incredibly quickly by today's standards.

Because it came so late in development, we had
already finished work on the animation so we had
to make do without any animation for moving
while crouching. There just wasn't time to do
anything about that.

ie LW RSE Me cota teeter Me ha
Psa bec Mom ee playing

eT eSet ml oT
uence eens onaea

I don't think we ever played multiplayer Doom
because we didn't have any PCs but we certainly
Spent a lot of time playing Bomberman at
lunchtimes and we also had an early, unfinished
version of Mario Kart 4. It was more that the

things which would be good seemed obvious to us,

and we just got on with doing them and
playing the game every day to see what was
working and what wasn't.

EVERYONE MAKES A BEELINE FOR

RieiGOLDEN GUNIN MULTIPLAYER BUT

JAMES BOND GOT TO IT bai

LT ome Nala) eel) |

I had to introduce the concept of a ‘player’ into

the game and gather all of the player's properties —
their position, direction, health, ammo, animations
and hundreds of others — into one place and then
go through all of the tens of thousands of lines of
code and make sure that anything that accessed
player data was aware that there might be more
than one player in the game. Hundreds, possibly
thousands, of now-invalid assumptions had to be
fixed, one by one. And because the game had been
coded in C, which doesn't encourage programmers
to be as structured as they would be with C++,

the code had been written in a fairly freeform way
with bits and pieces of data scattered all over the
codebase.

We didn't know whether it would work when we
Started. My biggest doubt was whether it could
work at an acceptable framerate. If it was going to
be rendering up to four times as many triangles,
maybe it would run at a quarter of the frame rate
and be unplayable? The only way to find out was
to do it, and of course some of the levels weren't
available in multiplayer for those exact reasons,
but luckily a good number of them performed well
enough that it was worth continuing.

multiplayer secret from the
etd sseny

! wasn't under instructions to frantically switch
to another window if Chris Stamper entered the
building, but then we didn’t tend to see much of

Steve Ellis

him so it would have been easy to keep it quiet
without trying. | can’t remember exactly when
Martin told them about it, but it was well after the
proof-of-concept stage, Obviously | was proud of
what we'd achieved and Chris's reaction to good
work was always positive,

I never thought split-screen would have that kind
of problem because if you're spending time looking
at the other screens, you're probably not looking
at your own enough to Stay alive. | do remember
arguing with Karl Hilton about the radars. He hated
them so eventually | added a cheat to allow players
to switch them off. It said something like ‘Happy
now, Karl?’ when you activated it.

Growing up, I'd spent a long time doing assembly
language Programming on the Spectrum and later
the Amiga, so | did a lot of low-level programming
and optimisation for GoldenEye like texture
mapping, RSP Microcode and demand-paged
virtual Memory, which simulates having more
RAM than you actually do have by fetching things
into memory only when they're needed. Sorry

to get technical. | worked on visual effects like
explosions, smoke and bullet holes and added the
hidden Spectrum emulator. Lots of other stuff,

to the success of ENE a gera
I think it challenged some people's assumptions
about how fun split-screen multiplayer could be
and | think it got a lot of attention for that. Without
it, | don’t think we'd be talking so much about the
game 20 years later, despite its other ‘firsts’.
ee
Huge thanks to all the team for their time and
to Graeme, Duncan and Karl for use of their
original photos and artwork.

rele Waleie
LOCATION

JETTING AROUND THE
WORLD WITH BOND

CUBA
| JUNGLE
LCI Aste -Unronmelo a) Be)
missile and mUSt escape this
ela aloe] Pe Cola

also have to wat aioe
PCIE Olar1e))oH

@ This mission has you
leading Natalaya to a
(ololnny oll cimetelnl Met laa- (ol.
You'll come under fire once
Eee Ceol ole) clald yo

CAVERNS

LMM OMEN (elem ole
identical looking caves and
finding security cards to open
Clara IVa nay eCard
doors. Not fun.

CRADLE

1 Blane lesele (ail c9
Eelared Unt nnom Tun iee=1Are)

has you trying to stop
Trevelyan from realigning the
GoldenEye satellite.

GOLDENEYE: THE DECLASSIFIED REPORT

SHOOT To KILL
OUR OWN PERSONAL PICKS FROM Q'S LAB

NH
ws

Blt's certainly not the
Cea Ont mals
(lel Rae yalale else 8
allowing you to kill from
asafe distance, without
fear of being shot.

GOLDEN
GUN

Deere eel clean
story mode via cheats,
eae NEN eC aot
Canalo manele (aa
highly coveted because it
CeO URS eae

1p) oy.
DOSTOVEI

L Miectielae tier
accurate as the PP7, but
it does carry more bullets

Ele AV -l are) UL}
WoT ea alla 0 1-10) om

Riel nel |e

volte] ibe Vie) ns

Ss
bel Yel 4 ar]
ee ee ee ee

ROCKET
LAUNCHER
LMU eelcelaulialen-lerelt
Tule) veel ma Cay
that you don't need to

LTR) Leelee cL Ue
make sure to get them in
the blast radius.

KLOBB

Ln eics
Nintendo's Ken Lobb, this
wonderfully pathetic piece
of hardware is only really
worth using when paired.
It's such an iconic gun we
had to include it.

GRENADE

You have to be quite
skilled at throwing them,
but the splash damage
caused by lobbing a well-
timed grenade should not
be underestimated. Lob
uel tav as

AUTOMATIC
SHOTGUN
L(t Unto Coke 1a (eh
which isn't ideal, but the
reward is a powerful
Eau aie Clan (ells
opponent's insides into
mincemeat.

KF7 SOVIET

PMN ea oy lero el Vaeal

of the most balanced

NV r-)fela Sa Uwe
with good ammo, decent
range and plenty of
stopping power.

MILITARY
LASER

YBa Corll)
limitations, making it
otra AU 00 8a)
gunfight. It also boasts
fantastic stopping power
and looks cool.

Q WATCH V2.0! BETA

MISSION STATUS: INCOMPLETE

olen]
MAGNUM

eee

REMOTE/
PROXIMITY
WIS)

m Perfect for those levels
that have lots of annoying
nooks. Plant a couple and
wait for your opponent's
swears of frustration.

RC-P90

TMi eniis)lea a
everything — great
penetration, an insane
magazine capacity
and extremely good
damage. It also fires
Tate (ool Varese

COUGAR
WNC ONE

@ Accuracy is massively
impaired but the stopping
power on this thing will
Lael Rael (eM OM nT] <i
Non UUM UNC Me al
Eastwood, which is nice.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 157

| CLASSIC VN aoe |
Lylat Wars

» PLATFORM: N64 » DEVELOPER: NINTENDO » RELEASED: 1997

he most iconic part of Lylat Wars outside of its main cast
of anthropomorphic sci-fi heroes is surely the bizarre, but
brilliant idea that the last boss is a floating gorilla head.
The final scrap with Andross, which is certainly a step up in
difficulty from any of the preceding levels, varies depending on which of
the game's two branching narrative routes you take — the more difficult
one ends with Andross transforming into his true form, a disgusting
giant brain, and climaxes with you performing a daring Return Of The

Jedi-style escape from danger.

But all routes end with an assault on this giant gorilla head, which
is animated so expressively, and the scale of which is so impressive,
even relative to the other gigantic boss battles earlier in Lylat Wars. It
was a brilliantly surprising reward for your efforts that tonally matched
the climax of Star Fox on SNES but made the most of the possibilities
granted by the N64’s 3D technology.

BIO

NaTo\ VAs oie ame) @er,
everywhere else but Europe —
apparently due to a possible
copyright dispute over the
name ‘StarVox’ in Germany —
according to developer Dylan
Cuthbert, this sequel to Star
Fox on SNES had a weird
journey to completion. You
probably know the story of
Star Fox 2, the scrapped
SNES sequel, which debuted
the multi-route structure that
eventually surfaced in Lylat
Wars — some of the content
Taar-le(cM ian) om alcMN oy Mtle(cmmolelg
i tateMant-l (eld NAC) Mel Came aot
was original. Being skilful
allowed the player to unlock
new paths through the story;
an undoubtedly forward-
thinking idea in an energetic
arcade shooter.

Lt Re Na) =e) oe ele) |

MORE CLASSIC LYLAT
WARS MOMENTS

Another path

Lylat Wars leaves it to you to

discover the different routes

through levels offered by the

story, and the first time that

happens to you is pretty damn eee

exciting — circumnavigating a few

tight cliffs leads Falco to take

you through a waterfall and fight a completely different end boss.
This is when Lylat Wars starts to branch, letting players gradually
peel off each strand of its vast galaxy.

Starwolf showdown

Players face Starwolf no matter

which path they take. It's in this

encounter, however, on the

Death Star-like surface space

station environment of Bolse, that

Lylat Wars feels the most like a

Star Wars movie. With surface

cannons sending laser fire everywhere and swarms of enemy
fighters, it's essentially structured like the Death Star battle: take out
your rivals, blow the core and we'll go home.

Ground assault

A pleasing departure from

Arwing-related combat is

the opportunity to drive a

landmaster during the Macbeth

and Titania levels, putting you

on ground level for some variety

in combat dynamics as this

moving armoured train throws boulders at you. Of course, Peppy
and company still fly by Arwing, being the cowards they are (and it
would be complicated to program ground AI for all four characters).

Solar

Level design is amazing in Lylat

Wars — it's easily one of the

most enjoyable space shooters

outside of LucasArts’ back-

catalogue, with each level using

the mechanics in a different way.

In Solar, that’s taken further by

the fact your Arwing is constantly running down in health as you
progress through this hot planet, meaning that you have to keep
killing enemies or destroying rocks to survive.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 159

By 2000, Japanese game developer Treasure
‘ was one of the greatest 2D action game

creators in the world. But how did it fare in
making its first full-3D title? Treasure’s founder
and CEO, Masato Maegawa, reveals all

in » PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

y ae dreads

» RELEASED: 2000

» PLATFORM: Nintendo 64
AD =n Li =O Real os COU

Dee MMe ce Mati el-ime (Creel -Soms-l orl er eM ice (3)

developer Treasure, then that word is ‘original’. Formed

in 1992 by Masato Maegawa and a handful of colleagues

from Konami, the developer first intended to move

away from the safe sequels it had previously been set
to work on, and debuted with a string of completely original
Mega Drive games in the form of Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite
Headdy and Alien Solider. Very quickly, the developer gained
a reputation for extremely intense and technically impressive
action games that challenged the player with complex control
schemes, offering an unparalleled ability to express oneself
through the game mechanics. As the developer's catalogue
of software grew through the 32-bit era and into the modern
age, many market realities changed the way Treasure would

We wanted to use the
N64’s ‘left’ position, because
not many games did

Masato Maegawa

come to do business, but this commitment to originality and
hardcore design remained. 27 years on, Treasure is fondly,

and rightly, remembered for a wide number of its past games
but, if you're a Nintendo fan, then chances are you'll be most
enamoured with Sin And Punishment, one of the developer's
most ambitious, accomplished and original videogames, which
seemingly pushed the system to its limits on its release.

As you'd expect from a developer that prides itself on such
originality, Tréasure refuses to discuss the game’s inspiration.
Even.on a title like Sin And Punishment, which owes a great
deal to Nintendo's Star Fox 64, Masato Maegawa coldly claims
that “there weren't really any” external influences. Instead he
tells us that Sin And Punishment was designed “with the same
outlook we have always had through all of our games,” and
cites the unique technology of the N64 hardware itself as the
catalyst for innovation in this particular instance.

" wig J a

1} y F iy f '
Fl | } , ' i 1 i
/ is i i

' Ul

| s u
: ae ta See | HE MAKING OF: SIN AND PUNISHMENT

; n J f l f i U 4

a
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FROM THE La
to
ests 38
SHADOWMAN f

| picked it up on import a couple
OA let le aa AMR] ae (eld
my RGB-enabled N64. | could '
mention about how great the
gameplay is but the reason it's a
oom N(R Lae UY
only game that lets me fight the
Cla = RR alee

Cece a y
een aero)

I'dnever heard of it, then decided
to pick it up on Virtual Console.
Glad | did: great game with
difficulty challenging enough

to keep a Mega Man-schooled
gamer happy. Love fighting a
planet with guns too...

Posted By:
BINARYROOSTER

Still the only Jap N64 cart | own.

STN Mae RUrlae h-18 Rol OYA] '
games on various consoles that

Nm ane Meee aC

the Japanese were playing this n
tight blaster with great visuals,
NVR RM Ucx=1Ccre Roe ag CMA
Attack and Blues Brothers 2000.
Cheers Ninty.

ets)

Ber fois ' fi
I don't like it. Too manic, twitchy

ETA alla aunt mae en

Ne Ue an AeA SR Ce

that | don't like twitch gaming,

Toh elm ar 1G Elan tv \Vae elie eT}

it's saved me a lot of money.

Posted By:

DIFFERENTCLASS

| remember seeing screenshots ni

and desperately wanting to play !
it, shots from the aircraft carrier P|
level looked like the best thing

ever but | had not the funds nor

the means to import. | was over

the moon when it came to the

VC. I'm sure Halo 3was out at a

similar time and it barely touched \
AU laP ROR ola RII eS a)

Oem

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 161
/

F ee! y

Many of the
Teles Soe] 4)
gigantic,

Par -CelnreTalCor=l
monstrosities
blessed with
wonderfully
complex attack
patterns and a
devastating array
of firepower,
and all of this
without a hint of
(ee Le)

ns
; ,
aM TC Pi, j , !
r - -

ALAC A- Sas

PR en CN mee RNC et een UMC men Me lee eR ORR UL La Cones
advantage and came up with a fun way of doing it,” says Maegawa on Sin And Punishment's option
to let one player control movement and the other control shooting.

“The starting point was that we wanted to make a game
that used the Nintendo 64’s ‘left’ position, because there
weren't many games that did that,” he explains, referring to the
different ways in which the console’s highly unusual controller
could be held. The three-pronged joypad with an analogue
stick in the middle would usually either be held with a hand
on each of the far prongs for 2D, digitally-controlled games,
or with the left hand on the analogue stick for 3D games. A
third option was available, however, which allowed the player
to hold the analogue stick with their right hand and place their
left hand over the d-pad. And it was this option, as Maegawa
suggests, that had the least obvious practical applications.

By adopting such a control method, Sin And Punishment
immediately set itself apart from predecessors like Star Fox
because it allowed you to play in a way that they did not: with
one hand used to move the on-screen character and the other
used to independently aim the direction of fire. This distinction
subsequently allowed Treasure to create a much more
complex and challenging game, with many more enemies and
bullets flying around the screen for the player to shoot at and
avoid respectively.

aving specialised in 2D action games throughout
the 32-bit era, Treasure was relatively late in
making the jump to 3D development, and Sin
And Punishment was, in fact, the very first fully-
three-dimensional game the team had produced.
And with the Nintendo 64 notoriously one of the most difficult
consoles to develop for, we can’t help but think that the studio
was jumping in at the deep end. Maegawa, on the other hand,
claims that the transition was relatively painless, especially
since Sin And Punishment remained within the
shoot-’em-up genre Treasure’s designers knew
so well. “A game design like that for Sin And
Punishment has parts where the 2D theory still
applies, despite it being 3D,” he says. “For example,
the basic gameplay, shooting and dodging, has parts
in common with 2D shooters.” Just a single sitting

’ a

Past TIHE rat

with Sin And Punishment is enough to prove Maegawa’s
theory correct. As the camera pans and turns around the
action, the perspective switches in ways that change the tone
of the gameplay. From an exhilaratingly fast on-rails shooter to
static screen affairs and vertical scrollers, the action runs the
gamut of shoot-em-up sub-genres and peppers them all with
the sort of reassuringly familiar bullet hell patterns that players,
and developers, had grown accustomed to.

Another familiar element came in the form of boss battles, a
divisive part of Japanese game design for modern gamers but
one that Treasure is often celebrated for, because of its unique
and memorable approach to the format. In Sin And Punishment
especially, the boss battles come thick and fast. Some appear
mid-way through a level, some at the end, some take up an
entire stage in their own right, while others constantly trouble
you throughout a chapter, appearing and re-appearing like an
arch-nemesis. Such moments make for some of the greatest
parts of Sin And Punishment, and showcase Treasure at its
best. The development team clearly has a natural love and
respect for this most ancient of videogame devices, and we
can’t help but ask why they continue to be used throughout
Treasure’s games, whether 2D or 3D. “I think that bosses are
one of the highlights of shooters and action games, and | think
that, by building in lots and lots of neat tricks and features, they

' iu eae ga y : ' a

; : ! a ’
HR ih ae tats Sees THE MAKING OF: SIN AND PUNISHMENT

Sting and even Treasure itself. But for the studio’s N64 output, in u
publishing duties were handled by platform holder Nintendo,
which was happy to lend its own design expertise to Treasure
during the production of Sin And Punishment. “They helped

us in all kinds of ways, like helping us come up with names for
the enemies, giving suggestions to help improve the playability
when playing for the first time and sharing their thoughts on
adjustments to the difficulty,” Maegawa explains. Surprisingly, ’
he also reveals that the Kyoto publisher was actively trying to
make its games more accessible to a mainstream audience
even then, six years before the Wii. “Their main requests were
to make the game easier to play, adding a tutorial and adjusting
the difficulty so that even players playing for the first time could i
understand the fun of shooting games.”

hardcore and challenging game when it
was released in November of 2000, Sin And Re
Punishment must have been crushingly difficult
before Nintendo suggested its changes. Instead, y
it was actually one of the most enjoyable and
satisfying action games released on the Nintendo 64, and was j
rightly hailed as one of the console’s finest new experiences.
Despite the fact that both the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 had

Dea WAR ROM MES OR UCN AN CLS UC He REL CeO Ca UMMC eRe Uae mete Ree OMY Lecce (Olea ela
completely different ways, so | hope that users are able to find fresh surprises in each of them.”

are an effective method to keep users interested,” answers been released by then, the N64 had a fantastic year in 2000,

ART O| LA. Maegawa. “To be honest, bosses take a lot of effort to make, with other swan songs like Perfect Dark and The Legend Of
|The working title for and there are even some bosses that we have to spend a Zelda: Majora’s Mask also released.
number of months on just by themselves, but | do feel they are Unlike those games, however, Sin And Punishment was
an indispensable part of Treasure’s games.” never received a release outside Japan. It wasn’t until 2007
Designing a game in 3D is one thing, but what about the that most gamers would have a fair chance to play Sin And

process of having to build such 3D worlds and make them Punishment, when it was finally released in the West via 1

function for the first time? “There weren't any the Wii's Virtual Console service. Though two

big problems technically or in terms of cost,” hardware generations old by then, the game

reveals Maegawa, “but what is easy and what is still impressed, thanks to _—s

hard when making adjustments and corrections its inventive bosses and a

is completely different when working in 2D or
3D. And our biggest challenge was in working
out how to use the small number of polygons in
an effective way, and in increasing the number
of enemies up to the limits of the hardware. That
is where we placed most of our attention.” On
the specifics of how such impressive visuals

distinctive visuals, and

proved so popular with

Nintendo’s current audience

that Treasure was encouraged

to produce a sequel. Released in
2009, the Wii exclusive evolved the
concept forged in the first game’s

were achieved during the N64’s twilight years, inception by expanding its unique
however, Maegawa prefers not to discuss any Producer independent movement and
specific technical tricks or breakthroughs, but aaa eas aiming across to the Wii Remote

ke japanese instead puts the overall artistic achievement down to the and Nunchuk. Which, as Maegawa reveals,

1 ‘ogethel competitive spirit of his employees. “The setting and the is an idea that dates back a lot further than

i think tha’ character designs and the sense of each of the designers and you may think. a

g "(Sin An programmers came together and all helped to create those “We even discussed having a sensor
visuals,” he insists. “The designers and programmers are when we were making the N64 game and so,
always trying to surprise each other, and| think that may be the as soon as| saw the Wii Remote, | felt that we A
driving force behind creating a kind of unique visual image.” had no choice but to make a sequel,” he says, Ui

Many of Treasure’s Nineties games were published by ESP dropping his final revelation like a cheeky smart i

Software, a rather unique company funded by a partnership bomb. That would be Treasure’s trademark

between several independent developers, including Game Arts, ‘original thinking’ at work once again...

Tela ael The Wii Remote
oltre m tal and Nunchuk ‘
template for seem made
on-rails shooters for Sin &
Olam oe mole marie Punishment, to /
was before Sin & pulmo aclu ils
Punishment took a sequel was
it to the next arguably an
level. inevitability.
c
? : EE ie : “ Fi uy ‘ LF Leg ae, we
Fe | 4 id
r 7 of tee hek rhe ees j 0 PP ew | F 1 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 163
y 3 1 0 ‘ J PTD Fi /

7 O “ ’ /
, Us /
n U U n o Leet} re yu pw ‘ E f Ui 4

BANJO-KAZOOIE

Rhyming witches, annoying sidekicks, short-sighted moles — Banjo-Kazooie
had it all. Join Retro Gamer as it uncovers the secrets behind one of the
greatest N64 platformers ever made

Aiyk

164 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

r
a

wy oe
AN ADVE

| WANT TO GO ON
NTURE TOO...

Temes DSSsiiitetlaa fall Oa= Liss
AS AN ADVENTURE GAME ON THE
NINTENDO SNES" eaees maces

pend any amount of time
talking to Rare’s Gregg Mayles
(now creative director) and
CRU CUR- Tenia
becomes obvious that they genuinely
love the games they get to create.
It's a fact that becomes continually
apparent when we were lucky enough
to talk to them about the conception of
Banjo-Kazooie, easily one of Rare's best
N64 titles. Of course when you consider

that this is the same Rare that was also

responsible for such N64 hits as GoldenEye,
Blast Corps, Conker's Bad Fur Day and
Perfect Dark, Banjo's enduring success
becomes even more impressive. And to
think that when development on Project
Dream (as it was originally known) first
began the affable Banjo wasn't even in it!
“It was definitely a convoluted route,”
laughs Gregg as he begins the story of
one of videogaming's favourite bears.

LP
eo
y
SO 1 y
G>»
|

Fae) s a a
teil ld ee

TUL e CaN Mca eC CMe mee
PSE Cea NON ke CUS (el

“Contrary to what many people would

like to think, we didn't just have a flash of
inspiration one day and say ‘Right, we are
going to make a humorous 3D platform
adventure game featuring a affable bear in
tight yellow shorts carrying a mouthy bird
in a blue backpack’. The main character

in Project Dream was initially a boy called
=o sola UAV eR Cc MTR oroNe| =~ emo
then we tried a rabbit character (that oddly
ran on two legs) and then a bear. People
liked the bear, the bear became Banjo,
Project Dream became Banjo-Kazooie
and Banjo-Kazooie was born.”

As Gregg has already mentioned, before
the lovable Banjo came along, Rare’s focus
was on a young boy named Edison. But
what was the story behind Project Dream
and how exactly did the main character
change from a traditional homo-sapien
to an ursine? “Well, Project Dream
originally started off life as an adventure
game on the Nintendo SNES,” reveals
Gregg. “Edison was a boyish adventurer
who inadvertently got tangled up with a
bunch of no-good (but inept) pirates, led
by Captain Blackeye. It was the game that
the original Donkey Kong Country team
started on after they had finished Donkey
Kong Country 2, and it took the ACM
graphics technology to the next level. The
introduction of the Nintendo 64 made ACM
obsolete, so we switched development
over to the new machine after only a few
months. Dream continued for around

—-

another year, before we realized that the
scope of the game and the early choices
we had made regarding technology
meant it was going to take many years to
complete. By this time, the main character
of Dream had become a bear who wore
a backpack purely to keep his adventuring
items in. We liked the bear and wanted
to make a more action-based game that
centered purely on him and his abilities.”
Banjo may well have gone through
quite a few changes before reaching its
final state, but the move from 16-bit SNES
to Nintendo's 64-bit console didn't prove
to be that much of a headache, as Chris
Sutherland (Banjo’s Lead Programmer)
explains. “Luckily, we were able to carry
over a lot of the supporting code from
1D) aa VAAN Aal=s 181M ae eVAVol( R=] ®)(c}
to complete Banjo-Kazooie in less than
eM anol g SAM a eM (-\V-1-] SMM AIcI= I ale

: BANJO-KAZOOIE

peels Mi )e) tan NB)

» DEVELOPER: RARE

» RELEASED: 1998

» PLATFORM: NINTENDO 64

Cd ht OS PU) Lt

Perec eu ea eM SAU ee REV)
NOVEM CNA SSO ALESIS CaS om

Once all the missing pieces had been
SOMA RUN Ree nt non et

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 165

One thing that set Banjo apart
from many other platformers
was the sheer amount of

Co lLAccle-1al MICcEATM VOLO ETe Le Co)
collect. Unlike other games of its
ilk though, the objects in Banjo
actually had a purpose. “Every
self-respecting platform game
hero has to have something

to collect, but we wanted
something that rather than
being just a shiny object, was a
shiny object that could actually
be used for something,” begins
Gregg. “The desire to have a
direct connection between this
shiny object and opening up

the worlds led to completing
pictures of the worlds like a
jigsaw, which in turn led to the
missing pieces being the Jiggies.
Jinjos came from a years-old
idea (dating back to Donkey
Kong Country) of having a
‘hard-to-collect collectable’

— one that would run away or
camouflage itself instead of
dumbly sitting around waiting to
be collected. Funny how things
turn out, as the Jinjos never

ran away and even whistled to
attract your attention! Actually,
they were probably the dumbest
collectable ever. The Feather,
Eggs, Notes and Honey on the
other hand were simply themed
around Banjo, Kazooie and

the game's musical theme.”

Once you found the red launch pad it was
possible to take to the air. All the better for
exploring Banjo's beautiful worlds,

es
RSTRNT See CHUTE
LEM elke)

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P there were two months prior to that
where we experimented with using the
Dream visual technology to create the
game, then we altered our approach to
better accommodate the design.”

With so many alterations made to
Banjo-Kazooie over its 17-month gestation
period, it's perhaps surprising to realize that
it was put together by a relatively small
group of coders... “We initially started with
about ten people then grew to 15 by the
end,” confirms Gregg, who was Banjo's
Lead Designer at the time. “VVe had seven
engineers, five artists, two designers and

"NINTENDO HAD A DIFFICULT
TIME UNDERSTANDING THE
SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOUR
AND NEVER-ENDING TORRENT
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CONSTANTLY DISHED OUT"

GREGG MAYLES

one musician. The leads in all four disciplines
are still going strong at Rare, having worked
on Grabbed By The Ghoulies, Viva Pinata
and now Banjo's new adventure, which

will be appearing on the Xbox 360.”

nce Project Dream was
officially no more and work
began on Banjo in earnest,
gamers worldwide were eager
to see how Rare’s latest platformer
would turn out. After all, with the Donkey
Kong Country trilogy proving to be so popular
oa R ae Me lh sseMe GYAN eLital- eee ce cielce Ralf

CNA e eS COO MU ETE (eh
and how it ended up once it hit retail shelves.

Rare’s first platformer for the N64 was going
to be just as good. After creating such a
successful series of hits on its 16-bit console,
we were interested to know if there was
there any pressure from Nintendo to ensure
that the same magic happened on the N64?

“Oh not at all,” begins Gregg. “Nintendo never

put any pressure on us to achieve success. |
think that if you aim specifically for success
it is much harder to achieve. Creating a
game to the best of our ability that we hope
will be successful is a far better approach
Nintendo, like Rare, only wanted to release
the best games possible, so | guess you

BSS ee RCURUS ISCemnUSR IT
eater Te eRe u ec AS TLIC Tm Cn Uo
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could say we put ourselves under pressure
to deliver a great game. Of course, not all
great games are successful, but we were
fortunate that Banjo was considered both
a good game and a very successful one.”

ndeed, Banjo-Kazooie proved to

be an incredible success, and

MMM irl eR CoM Comoe)

million sales that Rare’s GoldenEye
had achieved, it ended up receiving
impressive scores from virtually every
magazine and website that reviewed
it. In fact, in the eyes of many gamers,
acl MYA 7- so Occ 14celfancimtar-lailarellVmanr-larcle|=1e|
to improve on the majesty that was
Miyamoto's Super Mario 64. We were
keen to know if Rare had ever planned
on making a ‘Mario 64 beater’ from the
very beginning. “Not really,” states Chris.

“Setting out with the intention of making

an ‘improved version’ of another game
would be quite uninspiring to work on, so
that's not something we've ever done,” he
explains. “Instead you have to create your
own path and follow that — certainly you
can take inspiration from other games and
Mario 64 was just one of those games.”
But what did Nintendo think about Banjo-
Kazooie? And did it ever have a say in
the direction it would end up taking. After
all, we could imagine that Miyamoto was
watching the project with quite a lot of
interest. “There's was very little actually,”
confirms Gregg. “Seeing that Banjo was
actually Rare's creation, we didn’t have to
show Nintendo what we were doing until
we were happy the game was what we
wanted it to be. | think that some people at
Nintendo had a difficult time understanding
the self-deprecating humour and never-
ending torrent of sarcasm that Kazooie
constantly dished out, although this didn't
prevent the game from becoming popular
in Japan. Every 3D platform game owes a
respective nod to Nintendo and Miyamoto-
san, and for anyone to even compare

» An early sketch of the warping
tere

Atl CTR URNS RT

Banjo to the piece of gaming history that
was [Mario 64 is a great honour indeed.”
Rare may have not set out to create
a ‘Mario 64 beater’ but it’s obvious that
the two games do share some common
traits. Impressive cameras, a variety of
memorable characters and plenty of
inventive levels to explore are just a few
of the similarities to be found in the two
classic titles. One area where Banjo did
have the edge though was in its special
moves. While Mario was no slouch
in the wall-jumping and somersaulting
departments, he couldn't hope to compete
with the dazzling array of specials that
Banjo and Kazooie had access to. As well
as traditional bottom slams and double-

jumps, the dynamic duo were also able to
shoot eggs at opponents, use Kazooie's
beak to peck at enemies and even flip
through 180 degrees, so Kazooie could
use her long legs to climb surfaces that
were too inclined for Banjo to access
Although the pair worked beautifully
together, like Banjo, Kazooie's involvement
in the game came at a much later stage
“Initially Kazooie didn't even exist; it was
just Banjo on his own,” reveals Gregg

“During the planning of Banjo’s abilities, we

thought it would be a good idea if he had a
traditional ‘double-jump’, so that he could
get himself out of mid-air trouble and also
cover greater distances. The problem was

that just activating a second jump in 4

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THE MAKING OF: BANJO-KAZOOIE

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P mid-air looked rather odd — a way was

needed to make it look more believable. We

came up with the (looking back, extremely

wacky) idea that a pair of wings could

appear from his backpack to help him

perform the second jump. We also wanted

Banjo to be able to run very fast when

required, so as the idea with the ‘double-

jump’ wings had worked so well, we added

a pair of ‘fast running’ legs that appeared

from the bottom of the backpack. So

we had wings and legs, and soon after

we came up with the logical conclusion

(well, it was to us) that these could belong

to another character, one that actually

lived in Banjo's backpack. This character

became Kazooie and we transferred

most of Banjo’s moves to her, adding

her sarcastic wit as a contrast to Banjo's

good natured charm for good measure.”
As well as sharing a number of

special skills, it was also possible for

the pair to transform into a number

of different animals that ranged from

huge levels from a brand new perspective

“The actual transformations were dictated

by the level design,” explains Chris. “Once
all the level themes had been decided upon
(which was done before work on the first
one commenced) we looked through them
and picked the ones where we thought the
transformations would be most suited. After
this, it was just a matter of coming up with
a suitably interesting transformation for the
theme of the level and what abilities the
transformation could have. The idea for the
transformations came about from wanting
Banjo to be made small on Mumbo’s
Mountain (the first level) so that it gave

Laem (cee Mellon Mic A ROC (e =] (om SIU] E
rather than just shrinking the main character
(which had been done before) we hit upon
the idea that he could be changed into an

alternative, equally small form — the Termite.”

Despite the main focus of Banjo being on
its two heroes and their array of special

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plenty of supporting player characters, many

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a crocodile to a termite in order to
retrieve otherwise unreachable items

PUR Uk’
straightforward though and
it was impossible to change
into a new form unless you
had collected the required number of
Mumbo tokens that were carefully
ivteCe mules elem UMN ome ly
worlds. Once you had enough, Mumbo
Jumbo would use his voodoo magic and
you could continue to explore Banjo’s nine

of which are just as memorable as the bird
and bear double act. Bottles the mole was
on hand to explain the many new moves

that Banjo and Kazooie would gain access to,

while Mumbo Jumbo was a Witch Doctor
who could transform Banjo into a variety of
different beasts, thus helping the loveable
bear to complete specific tasks in his new
guises. Perhaps the most memorable
character of all though was Gruntilda the
witch, a vain, evil hag with a penchant for
speaking in rhyme and capturing Banjo’s
sister Tooty at the beginning of the game,

MAM MLS ecm ce eM ON MCI eR OCCUR)
the main game hub.

an act that spurs Banjo into undertaking his
epic adventure. With all the characters having
such distinct personalities, we asked Gregg

if they had been based on anyone in real

life — the Stamper brothers perhaps? “Banjo
and Kazooie no, but Bottles could be likened
to the typical clever kid in every school

that wore really thick glasses — hence the
Bottles family all having slang terms for such
spectacles as their names,” confirms Gregg

“Gruntilda on the other hand was inspired

by Grotbags, the bumbling incompetent
witch from Emu’s Pink Windmill Show."
Darn, so the rumours of Chris Stamper
carrying his brother round the Rare offices
on his back are obviously untrue then

= 18 =] ® =e) Me) maT MK =r=ls10) BRAVA 218A = 16S)
shared such an affinity with Banjo and
Kazooie was because of the charming way
that they communicated with each other and

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timing jumps properly.

| THE MAKING OF: BANJO-KAZOOIE

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the other residents of Banjo’s world. Like
the Zelda games, there's no real speech to
speak of, just some rather cute mumbling
that perfectly suits the cartoony nature of
the game. “One of the things you have to
remember is back then speech for games
was still in its relative infancy, and less than
convincing speech heard in some games
made us feel that it didn’t really add to

the experience,” explains Gregg when
questioned about the characters’ distinct
voices. “We didn’t want to ruin player's
perceptions of the characters by getting
their voices wrong, but we did want the
characters to be heard — so we hit upon a
compromise. The mumbling allowed us to
convey the personality of the characters
without them actually speaking, and of
course was very easy to implement. It also
added a certain endearing charm that a lot
of players have commented on and it was
something that made the game unique.”

HOEDOWN
SHOWDOWN

It's one of the funniest openings
in any videogame so we thought
we'd show you Banjo’s classic
hoedown in all its glory. Ooh, we
really spoil you sometimes.

t wasn't just the voice
characterization that made Banjo-
Kazooie stand apart from its peers.
It also just happened to open with
one of the most hilarious musical intros
the videogaming world has even seen,
and even today it never fails to raise a
smile. Knocking on the screen to get your
attention, Banjo immediately launches into
an amazing hoedown that sees him joined
by sister Tooty, the annoying Kazooie and
Mumbo Jumbo, who constantly outplays
Banjo, much to the bear’s frustration. It’s
a delightful sequence that fully sums up
Rare's legendary status on the N64 at the
time, but where did the idea originate?

“Well, only Banjo had a name to begin with

and someone remarked that if he was
called Banjo he should play one,” begins
Gregg. “In order for his bird companion to
fit in musically (and so they could play a
duet for some as yet unforeseen reason

which eventually became the hoedown)
we gave her a Kazoo and named her after
it. A Kazoo was chosen, as it can be a
really annoying instrument, much like the
personality of the bird. Unfortunately, we
had trademark problems with Kazoo, so
we changed it to Kazooie. Tooty and
Mumbo were given instruments for no
reason other than it allowed them to join in
with the hoedown and be introduced to the
player before they even started the game.
We actually tried a similar tongue in cheek
approach with the ‘DK Rap’ at the start

of Donkey Kong 64 (which coincidentally
featured Banjo's lead engineer as one half
of the rapping duo during a break from
coding and supplying voices for Banjo

and Kazooie), but this was received with
less affection as people thought we were
trying to be serious. | think Grant (Banjo
and DK64's musician) is still bitter about
this to the current day —in fact I'm sure >

OT ROMER CISCR ene RULE
Meee MEY Ly

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 169

| ama ed ae
something
to say
about it, yet again,
WaT C=rsle Sena
As can be expected from
a game that starts off with a
‘duelling banjos-styled’ hoedown
between a competitive bear and witch
doctor, Banjo-Kazooie happened to have
an extremely memorable soundtrack. Filled
with musical flair and beautiful touches
(check out how the volume becomes all
anlar MW A= AMOUR Ny ROMO ALe =m VN7=1(21
its cheerful tunes perfectly captured the
atmosphere of each level you explored
From the jaunty jingle of Treasure Trove
Cove to the sombre tones that accompanied
the exploration of Grunty's lair, Banjo's
many tunes worked perfectly. Throw in an
assortment of cute spot effects and here
was a game that sounded as good as it
played. Despite the music being some of
the best we've heard on an N64 platformer
it was Banjo's excellent graphics that really
managed to impress and even today it
remains a visually alluring title. While a
recent play revealed it to be nowhere near
as populated as we once remembered,
the stunning level design and creation
is still achingly obvious and it makes the
somewhat simplistic looking (though no
well less designed) world of Super Mario
64 appear rather dull in comparison. “From
an art perspective, the characters were
created with minimal amounts of texturing;

ee
Pen aes
pee

PM oR wa) =28) 1h ele) |

A great amount of work went into the design of each level.

this gave them a very clean look,” explains
Chris. “The backgrounds on the other hand
had a very large number of textures and in
many cases we used very big textures cut
into several 64*64 pieces (the largest texture
size the N64 could draw). This meant we
were able to avoid having tiling textures
everywhere. Also we used a decal technique
that allowed us to blend areas of textures
into one another. Overall having a very
detailed background mixed with clean simple
characters created a great visual contrast.”
While the end result was undeniably
superb, the complex visual look provided
Chris with more than a few headaches. .

“From a software perspective, we pushed

the memory of the system very hard,”
he states. “As you move the camera
around the map, the machine is constantly
throwing out of memory things you can’t
see and pulling in the scenery that appears
into view. This gave us major memory
fragmentation issues (“fragmentation”, to
try to give a non-technical analogy, is like
when you want to place a big box on your
desk, but can’t because there’s too much
paperwork scattered around it. To fix this,
you first need to move all the little
bits of clutter together to create
a big enough space, then you
can place the box down). We

Heat

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Sthton

used a proprietary system that “reshuffled”
memory continuously as you played to
eliminate the fragmentation. I'd doubt many
N64 games of the time did anything like
that — overall it meant we could dedicate

a higher number of polygons to the
characters and backgrounds than many
other games at the time managed.”

t may have pushed the machine to
DMM UMC CRU Tle)
for everyone to see. Each of Banjo's
nine levels may have been based on the
sort of environments that had appeared in
countless other platform titles, but clever
level design and familiar themes made
the outlandish looking locations instantly
recognizable. “VVe wanted players to be
able to travel to places that were larger
than life, but still relatively believable in a
fantastical way. Once a theme for a world
had been chosen, we brainstormed as
many ideas as possible that you would
expect to see in such a location, then used
these ideas to shape the world, before
adding a twist of humour as the finishing
touch. Taking Treasure Trove Cove as an
example, we wanted everything possible
that you would imagine a desert island
to have — crabs, pirates, a wrecked ship,
a sandcastle, a lighthouse and treasure

Left: Bottles was a short-sighted mole who would teach you new special moves.
LT) eee ELAR east RUM cree ROM etl MT e em Ure ARSC

where X marks the spot of course).”
While nine huge worlds to explore
--lanl-(e MANOR ar- eRe -18l (el Mal Mar|6|
actually intended to include several more.
CTaiolaiar-1 cma Reema Maa-clale
that levels like Hammerhead Beach and
Fungus Forest were cut out. They didn’t
disappear forever though... “It's easy
fo think up more ideas than are necessary
or possible,” continues Chris when we
asked him about the missing levels that
never made the final game. “Fungus
Forest and Mount Fire Eyes were additional
levels that weren't needed, whereas |
think Hammerhead Beach was something
io do with the fabled Stop 'n’ Swop.
Elements of Fungus Forest eventually

found their way into Donkey Kong
64, while Mount Fire Eyes was
incorporated into Banjo-Tooie as
Hailfire Peaks. There were also
folate =r Mem VaR UN Wo a)
transferred to the sequel — Glitter
Gulch Mine (mine) and Witchyworld
(fairground).” So if you had to drop
several levels was there anything
else that failed to make the final
cut? “Definitely,” continues Chris.
“We had actually planned a surprise ending
and additional game mode. After the
mighty Jinjonator had pummelled Grunty
into submission atop her tower, the witch's
final spell projectile intended to hit Banjo
and turn him into a frog. The player would
then have gained control of the rescued
Tooty, who then had to search through the
levels to find enough ‘Mumbo Tokens’ to
transform Banjo back into his normal ursine
self. This mode was dropped due to time
constraints, Grunty's spell was changed
so it missed and the idea for the Mumbo
Tokens was eventually used in Banjo-Tooie.”
Even though several elements never
made the final cut of Rare’s excellent
platformer, Banjo-Kazooie proved so
popular that a sequel, Banjo-Tooie was

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released two years later, and while it
once again received exceptional reviews
from the gaming press, Gregg is the
first to admit that that final product is far
from perfect. “Even though we thought
that Banjo-Tooie’s more complex and
interlocking worlds were better than those
of the original, many fans still believe
that Banjo-Kazooie was the better game
due its simpler structure,” he explains

to us. “ | would say we got the balance
right the first time and perhaps made
the all too common mistake of wanting
bigger, better and more for the sequel.”

ome gamers may not have
preferred Banjo’s second
adventure, but that doesn’t
PRU MMU ed
forgotten and Rare went on to release
a new game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts &
Bolts in 2008. While some didn't like
the vehicle building-based gameplay
that Banjo and Kazooie's exploits were
based around, an amusing video that was
released at X06 proved that Rare had lost
none of its trademark humour, all of which
was found in the final game. Back when
we interviewed them before the game's
release, the team was confident about
their new take on the platform genre as
Gregg told us: “Our aim is to take the
3D platform adventuring game into the
next generation and do something more
than just adding polygons. What we
want to do is retain all the elements that
made the first two games so loved, but
also try things that breathe new life into a
genre. | think old and new fans alike will
love it (although let's face it, | would say
that).” While there have been no new
Banjo-Kazooie games, we at least have
cameous in games like Super Smash Bros
Ultimate. Gregg still has plenty of love
for the series so it's fitting that he gets
the last word on why the series remains
so loved. “We built Banjo-Kazooie on a
combination of dysfunctional characters,
variety of gameplay, humour and
impressive locations — | can only assume
that some of these are what gamers
remember. | hope so, as we have plenty

THE MAKING OF: BANJO-KAZOOIE

=|
2
4

,
=)
s

' STOP ‘N’ SWOP
_ TILLYOUDROP

One of the most infamous
stories surrounding Banjo
Kazooie is its fabled Stop ‘N’
Swop, which would, allegedly,
have allowed data to be
transferred between both
Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel
Banjo-Tooie. Over the last

nine years Stop ‘N’ Swop has
been the subject of much
speculation on a number of
forums and, sadly, it would
appear that Rare is in no hurry
to reveal the actual truth behind
it. Not just yet anyway...

“We couldn't believe the
amount of attention this feature
attracted,” admits Gregg. “Even
now there are a dedicated bunch
of fans (hello Rare Witch Project)
ott Tanalial te MoM area atom CCU)

out of the game. We've seen

all sorts of speculation over the
years and it has kept us highly
entertained. In fact | actually
posted on their forums once,
offering to reveal all, but | was
dismissed as a crank. Secretly |
fo loTaM Malle MUNA (10a COn dale) A

| as trying to find out the answer
is far more fun than knowing

it. So I’m going to say nothing
yet again, although we are
considering revealing the truth
somewhere in the third game,
as some kind of anniversary
treat.” Chris Sutherland was no
more forthcoming. “For reasons
| can’t explain | doubt if all the
details could ever be revealed on
alm olU la am aM nal-t-Tallaa MMe [U(-t1)
you'll have to wait for the Xbox
360 game to see...” Aaarrggh!!

AMO G18 UME MOL 11) Coe aN ee eee AU LMR eR ce ele mS MUR UE Clee LUC et Ok ig the)
ee cleo e aca Aer SCRUM LAMA ee Re Ee CL

VS UTEINITSE SUS Cte) (00 Bie S|sleS 100) 1 SSiiels
(Ol Sessa Wels) WesialbesGtem PoniN elaa
EAU 9 oe arg el NN fe Lhe? D Se Lah Fea YD ey |

erin Ot pesto | Oo |e he aie yyy oes

more of all of these to come!” ¥

OS Ue em
(elle) esc TU MeCN

Special thanks to Gregg Mayles, Chris
Sutherland, Simon Farmer, and finally,
Wil Overton who made all this possible.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 171

Ey On

Beetle Adventure Racing!

MIDTOWN MADNESS - WITH ADDED BEETLES i

» N64 » 1999 » PARADIGM anew way of shaving precious seconds off
ENTERTAINMENT your time. You can leap over bridges, smash
There are two cars that I'd through bushes, take different road forks — the
love to own. One is a Ferrari choices feel virtually endless, and as the game
Testarossa convertible from progresses you're simply presented with more
Out Run (which |'m reliably told, and more entertaining choices.
doesn't actually exist) the other is The fun is further fuelled by the fact that your
the new model Volkswagen Beetle that was first vehicle handles extremely well, bouncing around
released in 1997. the devilishly-designed tracks with the same sort
When | first saw the new look Beetle it just of reckless abandon that had made Midtown

RETROREVIVAL

looked like an amazingly fun car to drive, and that Madness so popular a few months earlier. Add
fun was personified in Paradigm Entertainment's in a number of additional game modes that
sorely underrated racer, which took the free- ranged from a hilarious Beetle Battle mode — that
roaming elements of Konami's arcade racer GT/ saw up to four players trying to collect ladybugs

Club and massively built upon it. — to more conventional single races and Beetle
The amount of secrets to discover in Beetle Adventure Racing! proved itself to be one of the
Adventure Racing! was insane, and no matter N64's must-have racers. 20 years on and we're
Wes how many times you play it, there’s always still trying to discover its myriad secrets. ¥%

172 | 100GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOUDIE

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100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 173 —
—

IN THE
HNOUL

» PUBLISHER: CAPCOM

» DEVELOPER: IN-H

» RELEASED: 2002

» PLATFORM: GAMECUBE

» GENRE: SURVIVAL HORROR

174 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

The true art of the remake is to strike a balance that can both
appeal to legacy players and bring in a new generation. Back in
2002, Capcom managed just that by turning a cult PlayStation
classic into a GameCube showpiece. Luke Albigés opens that

ry as it might to pretend
otherwise, the original
Resident Evil was a very
silly game. It certainly didn't
help that the cast’s comical
performances only managed
to lend a Troma-esque triple serving
of ham to proceedings. The haunted
house setting and undead denizens
was reduced to cheap sets and poorly
underlit puppets when framed by
dialogue that was so badly delivered
it's incredible that it even reached its
destination. Capcom would go on to
refine both the cheesy dialogue and
game design of the original further for
the sequel, cementing this as a series
1e mechanics with its roots in B-movie culture, but

with mechanics that would blush at the

very idea of keeping such company.

If only there were a way to replace

the worst parts of the game while still

keeping the best bits and even building
st notably wit upon them... oh wait, there was.

1 Remaking Resident Evil for
GameCube wasn't simply a case of
taking the entire original PlayStation
game and making it look a bit better.

» Turn the nozzle the wrong way and you'll wilt a
perfectly good crop of herbs...

Sy Na cea CR US ES Ieee eee er CUNT
a skill you need to master for older Resident Evil games.

Capcom was a good four games into
the franchise at this point, and it had a
hell of a job to do in trying to convince
the world that the game on which these
pillars were built was more than just

a daft B-movie horror experiment that
happened to go right. “The decision

to create a remake on
the GameCube was

made by Shinji

who could actually
act, and using the
new tech to build on the
foundations of the original, the team
managed to create an experience that
felt less like a remake but more like how
you remembered the original experience

door and enters the survival horror once more...

the first time around. It was a thing of
beauty, and it's no surprise that the
game consistently finds a way into lists
of GameCube favourites.

But why GameCube in the first
place? “At the time the game was 4
being developed, the GameCube was
the most suitable hardware in
terms of allowing us to realise
our vision with the title,”
states Kobayashi, and
it's not hard to run
that statement under
the Logicoscope —

Nintendo's console
was a little more
powerful than
the PS2, and it
wasn't the western
y monstrosity that was
the Xbox, making it
the perfect home for
this remake, even if it did
have to span two discs in
order to pitch camp. In fact,
Nintendo's decision to do

things so differently to its competitors

arguably made this the perfect

» Don'tworry, Barry... it probably
Perna 8

PATROL er ARIAT TORO EMME SMT eLeM OAC (ele OLA

P place for Resident Evil to go for a
fresh start. Owners likely wouldn't have
been aware of the original, and those
that were, would find in this remake a
showcase that placed the console on at
very least an even keel with its peers.
Even so, this was to be no ordinary
remake and Capcom was keen to make
the Spencer mansion welcoming (or
unwelcoming depending on how you
look at it) for all visitors. "We wanted to
,ensure that players who were familiar
with the original 1996 version would
have something to enjoy in the remake
version as well,” says Kobayashi. “VVe
made sure to add and rearrange a lot of
content.” Whereas the Director's Cut
version of the PlayStation original moved
items around in order to keep players on
their toes, the remake not only moved
but also replaced elements and added
to the puzzle formula. Even within the
opening lobby, there are new areas,
routes and puzzles, with changes only
growing more obvious the deeper you
venture into the mansion — newcomers
would get a convoluted mansion to
try and decrypt, while the veterans
immediately knew that their previous
experience of this horrible house won't
be enough to get them by this time.
There were new combat items to
learn too, in the form of emergency
defence weapons. Daggers, stun guns
and stun grenades could be stockpiled
and employed to immediately escape
the clutches of the undead. “As part of
rebalancing the gameplay, we wanted
to give players an additional way to get
away from zombies and add a new
combat element,” explains Kobayashi
and while these items were useful
on a first or second run, they became
essential on the higher difficulties,
effectively a free pass that allowed you
to take a hit and come out unscathed
without needing to waste any ammo.

or all that it changed, though,
the core of the game would
remain intact. “As | worked on
the 1996 PlayStation version, |
was already intimately familiar with
it,” Kobayashi tells us. “But trying it
out again at the time, | really thought it
was still a great game, and | still think
that now!” There's certainly a case to
be made for the PlayStation original
being the better game — its mansion
is somewhat more coherent than that
of the sprawling remake, its systems
less complex and the voice acting
is the stuff of legend, with lines so
awful that they will live on forever
in popular culture. Even though
the remake only offers a slight
improvement in this department,
it at least sounds like the voice
actors understand the words
they're reading this time
around. But without Barry
asking what everything is, or references
to Jill sandwiches and the ‘master of
unlocking’, we'll always have a place

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in our hearts for the original game. As
much of an improvement as this may
be, you couldn't help but miss those
iconic lines — it’s a little surprising that
Capcom didn't offer both the updated
and original audio track, but a lot of
the old dialogue simply wouldn't fit in
the redesigned game. “The content
of the game and the story details
were changed so much that we had
to re-record the dialogue,” explains
Kobayashi, although we're sure that
isn't the only reason. To be fair, though,
Capcom laughs along with the rest of
us at the original dialogue; Dead Rising
features a store called Jill's Sandwiches,
while Strider has an Achievement
simply called ‘Master Of Unlocking’.
Amazingly, Kobayashi reveals that the
decision to recast and re-record the
entire game wasn't even the hardest
decision to make. “Balancing the
enemies in the game was definitely

the most difficult thing to do,” he says.
“We had the original as a reference
point but wanted to improve on it and
also include the new additions such

as Crimson Heads without
negatively affecting the

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DEVELOPER
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RESIDENT EVIL 2
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YEAR: 1998

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YEAR: 1999

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SYSTEM: PS2

YEAR: 2001

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66Content of
the game was
changed so much

overall balance
of the game.” The

mere mention of Crimson
Heads is enough to send
shivers down our spines, as

it likely will be for anyone who has fond
memories of the remake. Whereas
downed zombies were gone for good
in the original game, the remake

gave them the ability to return to life
(well, undeath) even more deadly than
before. Faster, stronger, more resilient
and even able to open some doors,
fighting Crimson Heads — especially on
tougher difficulty modes — was often

a shortcut to the famous ‘YOU DIED’
screen. Instead, preventing their arrival
altogether proved the most effective
way of dealing with this new threat, be
it by removing the heads of zombies
(which {8 basically a lucky critical hit),
burning their bodies,or simply not killing
the basic brain-munchers in the first
place. We cap absolutely see how >

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Anniversary was originally announced
oe to tie in with the 10th anniversary of the
1996 original, this completely remade version
of Lara's first outing didn’t actually hit stores
until 2007. Still, the new engine, graphics and
mechanics combined with classic locations,
enemies, puzzles, and story to excellent effect.

P balancing these guys must have
been a nightmare — they are the game's
one example of enemy placement
that is effectively player controlled
rather than predetermined, placing a
lot of pressure on Capcom to educate
;the new players in the importance
of preventing Crimson Head revivals
where possible and also to facilitate
this act. “The idea for Crimson Heads
actually came from the director, Shinji
Mikami,” says Kobayashi. “| think they
™ were a really successful new element
that brought a new dimension to the
wy zombies in the game.”
4 \ lt wasn't just new mechanics that
had the team working around the
clock either, with technical hurdles
to overcome that arose from the
fundamental style of the game.
“Creating the motion video backgrounds
was a real challenge, in terms of making
it work on the console hardware,”
Kobayashi tells us. “VWe created them
as 3D environments on what was then
very high-end equipment, and then
rendered still images and videos from
those.” It's only now, thanks to the
new HD version, that we can really
, appreciate just how intricate these
4} backdrops are — they obviously
looked great on GameCube but in
1080p, you can pick out every little
detail. It's incredible to think that
this level of fidelity was achieved
over a decade ago, with the classic
trick of using pre-rendered backdrops
allowing Resident Evil to look and feel
years ahead of its time. Code Veronica
saw the team dabble in full-3D Resi, but (|
the team wanted to stay true to its roots
for the remake. While it would have

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TOMB RAIDER: ANNIVERSARY

THE SECRET OF MONKEY
ISLAND: SPECIAL EDITION

Tim Schafer's crew found perhaps the
eh ultimate way to do a remake - offer a
new version of the game alongside the original,
with the option to switch between the two. The
developer commentaries were a nice touch too,
offering insight into the game's creation.

It is a testament to the original
ey platformer’s tight level design when all
Ubisoft had to do for this digital remake was
to give it a new lick of paint. Some of you may
prefer the original art style, but that doesn’t

change the fact that this is a brilliant and faithful
remake of a classic game.

ade launcher but he gets ey

Ae SUE Ae eu an eens lingering...

entertaining, and MAN UnU)
been possible to do the game entirely
with polygons, the design wouldn't
work without the static camera.

ike the fixed camera angles,
there are other outdated design
choices evident in Resident
Evil that make it through to
the remake intact. It's all done with
game design in mind rather than out of
blind love for the original. Tank controls
weren't to everyone's taste, although
the sluggish movement and inability to
move while aiming still lend the game
a sense of panic when an enemy is
near. Similarly, using Ink Ribbons to
fuel limited game saves made quite
a lot of people angry back in the
day, but PC quicksave addicts and
the autosave generation would both
do well to realise that most typewriters
are found in safe rooms, meaning you
can just store your precious ink and use
when needed. The inventory system
took some getting used to as well,
especially if you chose Chris. With only

METROID: ZERO MISSION

While we still love it, the simple style
gy of the NES original wouldn't be all that
impressive on GBA. Nintendo changed a fair
amount in terms of both content and aesthetic
for Zero Mission, pulling it more in line with
Super Metroid and Fusion. \t also added an
entirely new boss: Mecha Ridley.

six slots to Jill's eight, efficiency was
key — you only had room for a weapon,
a little ammo, a healing item, a key and
maybe a puzzle item, with one space
left for some stuff that you found along
the way.

“| don't remember exactly,” muses
Kobayashi when asked how long the
project took to complete. “But | think
the team was about a hundred people
and the project ran for around 18
months.” It's amazing to think that a
remake of a PlayStation game should
be about as resource-intensive as many
other projects at the time but then
again, there isn’t a single element of
the original that hasn't been changed;
maps and puzzles had to be redone,
set pieces rethought, characters and
backdrops created from scratch for
new hardware. In fact, it's amazing that
Capcom managed to pull all off in just a
year and a half - many modern games
don't even get out of the planning stage
in that kind of time. Kobayashi explains
that it wasn’t all hard graft, either.
“Designing the layout for the mansion
was a lot of fun,” he smiles. “We would
try to put ourselves in the shoes of the
player walking through the rooms, and
imagine which areas would be the best
place to hide something scary.”

Drawing on four games’ worth of
jump scares, devious camera placement
and just-in-the-nick-of-time item boxes
and save points, Capcom assembled
pieces from all over its franchise and
bolted them all onto the original game to
make it something much bigger, much
better and much more... well, evil. The
first game didn’t stray too far from the
template laid out by Alone In The Dark

THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002
UNLIMITED MATCH

With an expanded roster, new backdrops
ey and a host of new moves and gameplay
tweaks, this belated update to an SNK favourite
proved to be an all-encompassing celebration of
the series and as good a greatest hits collection
as there is on the beat-‘em-up scene.

a few years before, but the GameCube
version's thorough makeover couldn't
have put more distance between the
two series — amusingly, it actually came
out the year after the disappointing

A New Nightmare. Capcom's
remastered classic put the last nail

in Infogrames series’ coffin before it
commited suicide with its own reboot
in 2008 - a game so bad that you could
simply to choose to skip entire levels if
you liked, such was the lack of faith in
its quality and whether or not sections
would actually work properly. With
Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame on the
scene, Resi had to be on top form, and
the team made damn sure that it was.
Just to be absolutely sure, though, there
was Resident Evil 4 in the pipeline... but
that's another story for another time.

So what is the primary reason for the
remake’s lasting renown and popularity?
“| would Say it's because it isn’t just a
graphical upgrade, but an expansion of
the gameplay that made the original title
so popular,” states Kobayashi, and it’s
a somewhat validating response — the
team managed to breathe new life into
a classic on more than just a technical
level, to the point where 1080p
spruce-up still makes it as relevant and

PS OCS USNR eat
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BIONIC COMMAND:
REARMED

Around the same time as Capcom
gh released its full-3D reboot of the Bionic

Commando series, it also saw fit to stay true
to the series’ roots with this digital update.
Mechanically strong, the game even got a
sequel, so it must have done alright.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA:
LINK’S AWAKENING D)

Still one of the best Zelda gary
day, Nintendo did an aweso!
updating the game for the newly-rd
Boy Color. Not only is the full gama
delight but colour even extends int
particularly in the additional dunge

ODDWORLD: NEW ‘N’ TASTY!

Do you remember how good the
PlayStation original looked?
New ‘N’ Tasty actually looks as good as you
remember it. Again, it's faithful to the first
Oddworld game, the only real difference being
that Mudokons come in greater numbers,
meaning there are lots more in total to save.

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now as it was 13 y
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it's even more important A
today. Since RE 4, the series has
clearly decided that it wants to be an
action game, and it's no surprise that
the copycats followed suit. But with

the series falling out of favour following
RE 6 and the awful Operation Raccoon
City, it's time for a change.

Now the remake has received a
warm reception, it's likely that said
change will involve Capcom going
back to the format that made both the
PlayStation original and its GameCube
update so special. Welcome back to the
world of survival horror, people.

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enough about dying already... 4
.

METROID PRIME

2002 NINTENDO RETRO STUDIOS GAMECUBE

An unlikely success story for the GameCube, here we remember and
reflect upon one of the greatest franchise transformations of all time

uper Metroid was almost the end of it all. Nintendo
would leave it a full seven years before enlisting Samas
Aran for another adventure through the stars, the famed
bounty hunter trapped in a limbo of sorts as Nintendo
R&D1 started to explore 3D
| spaces and grappled with
| the implementation of more
complicated camera and control

systems. The N64 brought a
lot of good, but a new Metroid
game it did not. No, that
honour would be reserved

for the fledgling GameCube
and entrusted to a brand-new
Western development outfit
by the name of Retro Studios.
You see, Super Metroid set the
benchmark for quality, ingenuity and innovation so high back in 1994
that Nintendo feared it would never reach such heights with a game
baring the Metroid name again; Nintendo believed that it could only
be something truly special that would breathe fresh life into the

CLM ome Nala) =e ele) |

The decision to sweep
Metroid out of the realms
of 2D action-adventure and
cast it from a first-person
perspective was, of course, a

controversial decision

series and allow the series to hypnotise a new generation of players.
That game would come in the form of 2002's Metroid Prime.

The decision to sweep Metroid out of the realms of 2D action-
adventure and cast it from a first-person perspective was, of course,
a controversial decision met with
some resistance at the time,
both internally and externally.

But it’s one that would ultimately
prove that there was more to
first-person gaming than gunplay
alone. As a first-person adventure
Metroid Prime would become a
tantalising action game that put
as much emphasis on cautiously
crawling through the caverns

of Tallon IV as it did blasting
creatures out of the sky. Studious
investigation and cautious contemplation were the decisive elements
that helped Prime stand starkly apart from the litany of first-person
shooters arriving in the wake of such inspirational titans as Half-life,
System Shock 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved.

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BEST BOSSES

THE BIGGEST THREATS TO
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METROID PRIME aN es) a1 8)

The final boss of the game, the battle against Metroid
Prime puts everything that you have learned over the
preceding hours to the test. It’s classically designed,
featuring distinct phases and challenging patterns of
assault that will require plenty of beam switching. A
testing last stand on an excellent adventure.

% Coming face-to-face with a giant rock creature can
be pretty intimidating, especially as it looks as if it has
no clear points of attack. That’s why you have to utilise
your Thermal Visor to look for weak points between the
cracks of his outer armour; a fun boss that features cool
system combinations.

% Ridley is an absolute Metroid classic, and this climactic
battle with the iconic enemy doesn’t disappoint. It’s hard
as nails, cinematic and pretty breathtaking. So much of
the game is building to this battle in the Artefact Temple,
and it doesn’t waste any time in ramping up the tension
once you finally reach it.

» Samus has access to different visors. This one allows for heat vision.

Metroid Prime spread its action out across a large, open-ended
world space. The sense of scale it presented was remarkable, your
sense of place within it all unprecedented. Progression through
Tallon IV is — in classic Metroid fashion — gated by the necessity to
hold certain weapons or powers in your arsenal, and so you go off
in search of shortcuts and solutions. You battle against the toughest
foes Prime has to offer with faith that a hard-earned victory might
just let you acquire a new suit or beam ge to help you open up
new corners of the space. You
seek out every one of
the world’s mysteries
in the blind hope that
you might stumble
upon the solution
to a puzzle with the
assistance of a new
upgrade or power tool.

This is the inscrutable
pacing of Metroid Prime,
and it works to bind you
and Samus together inside
of the adventure.

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While there is indeed so much to praise the staff of Retro on
here, it's perhaps the balance that still shines brightest in Metroid
Prime. Never do you feel entirely lost or abandoned by the game,
cast aside until you find the correct item. Never does it punish you
for trying new tactics or fresh ideas in an effort to clear a source of
conflict — if anything it encourages that sort of thinking and ambition
all throughout, which is pleasing to see and immensely satisfying
when it happens. Metroid Prime offers a quite frankly ridiculous
array of abilities that only help augment Samus and expand your
opportunities for play, and the balance that exists within it to ensure
you never get too far ahead or left too far behind is sublime.

But that’s Metroid Prime all over. It's utterly sublime. It's a genre-
skirting and convention-breaking first-person action game that caught
everybody off guard, demonstrating that there was more to be found
in first-person action games than running-and-gunning. It was never
going to be easy to follow a game like Super Metroid, though Retro
Studio did it with style, making many wonder why Samus didn’t
make the leap to 3D sooner. It's one of the best GameCube games,
and we are still seeing and feeling its influence today. The fourth
game currently planned for Switch can't come soon enough. ¥

GAME /CHANGERS

THE GAMES THAT

EXPAND YOUR SIGHT

Second sight and augmented vision, these are just some of our
favourite implementations of “Detective mode’

TLOZ: OCARINA OF TIME

@ Attacking The acquisition of the Lens of Truth is of vital importance in Ocarina Of
Time. This ancient Sheikah artefact allows its wielder to see objects more clearly
than regular vision will allow, helping Link to avoid deadly pitfalls and trap chests
and assisting him in locating hidden doors masked by illusionary magic. While it
isn’t anecessary acquisition, it certainly takes some of the bite out of the Haunted
Wasteland and Shadow Temple.

Pe Re Na) ae) ae ele) |

METAL GEAR SOLID

@ There's a possibility that Metal Gear Solid is the originator of ‘detective mode’ as
we understand it today, thanks to the introduction of the thermal goggles. When
activated this item imbues Snake with the power to see through walls, giving him
the ability to see patrolling enemies as silhouettes. It’s an item that removes an
air of difficulty to the stealth action, handing you the ability to better figure out the
optimum route forward.

1
eal

Dee ca aa st

BATMAN: ARKHAM A

@ Batman is supposed to be the world’s greatest detective. That's a prominent
position that is rarely explored outside of Detective Comics, although Batman:
Arkham Asylum gave it a pretty good shot. Through detective vision, the player
is granted true omniscience — the ability to spot and track enemies through the
oppressive environment, to quickly solve puzzles and to truly understand the
mysteries of the Arkham Asylum.

METROID PRIME

§ The introduction of the Scan Visor in Metroid Prime was there for two reasons
above all else. Firstly, it forced the player to slow down and take in the world around
them; scanning points of interest and ancient enemies reveals new details of the
world and story, helping to immerse the player in the situation. Secondly, it helped
impart information on the game's most challenging enemies, a little help during an
otherwise punishing adventure.

ASSASSIN’S CREED
& While this would later be retconned by its direct sequel, we were always big

fans of how Ubisoft justified the implementation of detective vision into the original
Assassin's Creed. In sucha large open world it needed to find a way of steering the
player forward, and so ‘Eagle Vision’ was born. Considered a quirk of the Animus for
Desmond's benefit, it was a visualisation of the highly trained sense of observation
the assassin’s once possessed.

CONDEMNED: CRIMINAL ORIGINS

™@ Condemned is the overlooked classic of the Xbox 360 launch line-up. A brutal
first-person brawler, it also happened to feature some pretty wonderful crime
scene investigations. It's in these specific situations that you are granted the power
of second sight — or ‘instincts’ - to help locate clues in the local vicinity, call upon
forensic tools and ultimately solve puzzles that will let you press ahead into the next
nightmare scenario.

TOMB RAIDER

@ Crystal Dynamics never gave a whole lot of narrative justification for the
inclusion of expanded sight in 2013's Tomb Raider reboot. Still, the introduction of
‘Survival Instinct’ allows Lara to analyse and survey her surroundings with ease,
arriving at points of interest, collectibles, enemies and routes ahead. By the time
Tomb Raider came about, augmented vision wasn't there to imbue the gameplay,
but to give players a helping hand in navigation and combat.

DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

§ If the point of detective mode is to allow you to see beyond a character’s usual
scope of vision in a pretty unreal way, then Human Revolution features one of the
most grounded implementations so far. If you've got two Praxis points going spare
you can augment Adam Jensen with ‘Smart Vision’. Enemies gain a sickly yellow
glow, computers and workstations become points of interest and you become an
unbeatable killing machine.

100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 183

.- With the launch of the GameCube came one of the most exciting Star
Wars games ever made, a.visual powerhouse which dropped jaws
aa and fulfilled many a fantasy se

Mm Waa e Vasco acl

IN THE
HNOW

» PUBLISHER:

LUCASARTS, ACTIVISION

» DEVELOPER:
LUCASARTS, FACTOR 5

» RELEASED: 2001
» PLATFORM: GAMECUBE

» GENRE:

hen it comes to big-name licenses in gaming,
there are few that can boast the same
longevity or variation of interpretations, as
Star Wars. Whether it's early classics like Atari's
arcade machine in 1983, or later titles like Knights
of the Old Republic and the Lego Star Wars series, millions of
players the world over have been able to explore the fabled galaxy
far, far away in a myriad of ways. And from the beginning, numerous
titles have involved jumping into the cockpit and taking the Empire
head on. In this regard, few games come close to the magic of Star
Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, first released alongside the
U.S. launch of the Nintendo GameCube in November 2001. A game
that took an arcade-inspired approach to flight combat and allowed
players to relive famous moments from the original trilogy.
After the success of the first Rogue Squadron game for N64
and PC and the spin off Episode 7: Battle for Naboo, developer
Factor 5 was set on making the next title in the series. Rogue
Leader's director Julian Eggebrecht explains how the studio's
close relationship with Nintendo allowed it to start work on a game
for Nintendo's new console. “During the later years of the N64,
Nintendo pulled us into the technology partner team that designed
the GameCube platform because of our audio expertise,” he says.
“Since we were co-designing the hardware and knew every nook
and cranny of the chipset, it also made sense to create the next-
generation Rogue Squadron sequel for that platform because we
would be the first ones to ever have access to working prototypes.”
To show off what they could do with the new hardware, Factor
5 created a prototype to be displayed at Nintendo's now-defunct
tradeshow, Space World, in August 2000. The team built the
prototype in an insanely quick nineteen days, wowing those in
attendance with a showcase of combat on the surface of the Death

Star — with visuals and sound that had yet to be achieved in any Star
Wars game. Things were looking positive, but Julian reveals that in
the wake of Space World there were some backstage politics taking

64 Microsoft tried to snatch the game
away from Nintendo for the original Xbox

as a launch title 99

Julian Eggebrecht

» The Battle of Endor is easily the most chaotic mission, containing manic space scraps with TIE fighters and Star Destroyers.

‘

» Raid on Bespin is an original mission that allows you to explore Lando Calrissian’s Cloud City in all its
glory. It's a great level that highlights the GameCube’s power.

place. “Microsoft tried to snatch the game away from Nintendo for
the original Xbox as a launch title,” he tells us. “LucasArts wanted
to go with Microsoft, but we refused to switch platforms, first of all
because of our close alliance with Nintendo, but also because the
Xbox would not have been able to run the game at sixty frames

per second. | absolutely wanted Rogue Leader to become the
ultimate Star Wars game — and that needed to have sixty frames
per second.” Despite the enticing nature of switching to Microsoft,
LucasArts agreed to honour Factor 5's decision. But it wasn't the
only aspect of behind-the-scenes politics that the team had to deal
with after showing off their impressive prototype, as Eggbrecht
reveals. “The internal development group working on Starfighter

for the PlayStation 2 was shocked by our Space World demo and
tried to convince management to stop a Rogue Squadron sequel so
that it would not overshadow Starfighter and the prequel universe.”
Thankfully the rogue development studio didn't get its way and
LucasArts allowed Factor 5 to establish its own vision for the sequel
on the console of its choice, “At the end of the day Rogue Squadron
for the N64 had been a multi-million selling success, so LucasArts
gave us carte blanche to do whatever we wanted with a sequel, and
that included the choice of platform,” explains Julian.

Although the team traversed these early obstacles quite easily,
they still needed to finish the game in time for the GameCube’s
lucrative launch. As a result, the development time was a little too
close for comfort. “It was nine months and 19 days,” Julian recalls,
with pinpoint accuracy. “19 days in August 2000 from when we got
the first working prototype of the chipset from ATI (back then ArtX)
until the unveiling and demo in Tokyo. And then nine months >

100 GAMES TO’ PLAY BEFORE YOU | i)

FROZEN IN CARBONITE

Julian Eggebrecht talks about the unreleased Rogue Squadron Trilogy game

Rogue Leader was meant to be re-released as part of a trilogy game intended for the
Nintendo Wii, but it never saw a release. “We self-financed Rogue Leaders: Rogue
Squadron Wii and unfortunately the studio ran into financial trouble in 2008 when the
game was almost done,” explains Eggebrecht. “LucasArts was at the beginning of its
long end and could not step in financially to save the day, so the studio shut down with a
lot of debt and the inevitable lawsuits following such events.”

The game would've seen tweaked versions of the Rogue Squadron trilogy and included
Mii integration alongside motion control lightsaber battles. Eggebrecht fills us in on the
game’s current state. “While we were able to finish the game, thanks to an amazingly
motivated and loyal core team, LucasArts was unable to muster the courage to step
CMU Mee RTA am CMM eel te Mem CMa
the ark at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie. Nowadays Disney owns the property

Ever since Star
Wars Rogue
Leader arrived
in the office
everyone — and
we do mean
everyone — has
gawped at the
screen in utter
disbelief, before
tentatively
asking us for ‘a
quick blast’

from late December of that year to early September 2001.”
But it wasn't just the looming time scale that made development
a tight squeeze, as Julian continues to explain to us. “Why the
actual development ramp-up happened so late was mostly due to
everyone on the team being busy finishing other things — Star Wars:
Battle For Naboo and Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine for the
N64, as well as the audio Studio Development Kit and development
tools for the GameCube called MusyX.”

ven though the timescale was difficult, it seems that
the ability to pursue the team’s vision was a huge
driving factor for the team. And as Julian explains to
us, Rogue Leader was more in-line with what the team
wanted to do originally. “My original design for Rogue
Squadron was a combination of what would be Rogue Leader and
Rebel Strike. |t essentially was a best-of Star Wars, based on the
movie and allowing for fantasy fulfilment, but also filling in the story
gaps that one wondered about when watching the original trilogy.”
A large part of realising this vision was the GameCube's powerful
hardware set-up, which was obviously leaps and bounds ahead
of the cartridge-based Nintendo 64. “It was vastly different since
Nintendo and ArtX avoided the biggest pitfalls of the N64,” explains
Julian, “Thomas Engel [Technical Lead Engineer] and | had been
on the hardware development team for the GameCube and we
made sure to re-emphasise the most important points that we as
developers took from the N64 as major drawbacks. The result was
a hardware that to this day is probably the most efficient console
chipset ever designed.”

and the game would be a perfect fit for many

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best Rogue Squadron ever made, and with that

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end of the day fate was not on our side.”

In 2015, old titles including Super Star Wars were made available for digital download
on PS4, while Limited Run Games is also publishing classic titles. And with a higher
number of re-releases and remasters around than the womp rat population, it’s not
unreasonable to hope that Rogue Leaders will one day take to the skies in some form.

Technical Lead Engineer, Thomas Engel, backs up Julian while
highlighting the difficulties with the previous hardware of the
Nintendo 64. “Silicon Graphics had made bad mistakes in the
N64's performance of the GPU and overall memory bandwidth,”
he explains. “During GameCube design sessions the team told
the story of just how shocked they were about the bad memory
performance as the first N64 prototypes came off the assembly
line. The GameCube was the counter-thesis to that. It was all about
memory bandwidth and extremely fast GPU draw performance, and
these two are really key to a great console and game machine. Sixty
frames-per-second games were almost impossible to make on the
N64, but on the GameCube we pulled that feat off despite the great
graphics with relative ease.”

With Nintendo's purple powerhouse at its disposal, Factor 5 flew
straight into the chaotic trench of development. But despite the
new hardware set-up, some of its old approaches and methods for
creating Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo were carried over.
“The key tools remained the same including the level editor toolset
as well as our preferred 3D toolsets,” explains Julian, who goes on
to detail the new tools needed, and how the GameCube’s hardware
allowed for Rogue Leader's crisp visuals. “What changed, and was
elaborated on, was everything that had to do with shaders. We
suddenly were able to create surfaces that looked like the original
movie models, and of course the lighting engine was vastly, vastly
superior and with that needed a complete new set of tools. | don’t
know what made us think that it could be done, but there was an
intense push to get all the shading techniques that we only had read
about for movies and admired at Pixar for years.”

ECT Re Na) =e) mele) |

This meant the team could re-create famous scenes and locations 7 7 7
from the original trilogy in outstanding detail. Whether it was the & € Our Inspiration came from the + eis
Death Star’s manic rush down the trench, the orange skies of 7 °
Bespin’s Cloud City, or the vast deserts of Tattooine, Rogue Leader immensely playable Star Wars arcade -
allowed players to fly in those worlds in ways that had not been 7 1 5
achieved in the medium previously. But to create these locations vector game that Atari created in 1983 a5 3
with such authenticity meant that changes had to be made from Holger Schmidt
the N64 era, as Julian explains. “The most radical changes to : -
the prior games were completely new engines for cityscapes for
Bespin, a forest and vegetation engine for Endor, and a Death Star
surface engine that was also used for the surface of the Super : , p '
Star Destroyer in Rebel Strike. Last but not least, there also was a 7. ys ce
complete indoor engine that we built for the ship selection hangars in |
Rogue Leader and expanded upon with gameplay in Rebel Strike.”
Texture Artist Jim Moore fills us in on the methods the team
used to make these locations come to life. “A lot of the time it

simply came down to painstakingly matching what we could find : . i i Mi) °
in production stills or archival shots provided by LucasFilm,” he > , |

y SI _ . Cs -“-*
f Pee . “ r : eZ) PW NA: CU) IY

says. “Fortunately, due to the ongoing popularity of the franchise,
there was a wealth of material to draw from that still exists today,
which is probably not true of most 30-40 year old franchises.”
And although the license didn't allow for a departure in visual style,
the idea of re-creation certainly helped the game define its visual
identity. “The main goal for the art department was to create as
faithful a translation as possible,” Jim explains. “In a way, that in
itself became the artistic stamp. At one point | was even reproducing
the outlets that are visible from the soundstage, which they were
filming on!” The largest reason that Jim and the other artists could
achieve this was due to the close ties and spacial proximity to

ee es 8
pe i

Among Rogue Leader’s
secrets and unlockables was
an intriguing “making of”
Cla Cla

Star Wars: Rogue Leader contained a host

LucasArts. “At the time, we were located across the street from
them and down the road from Skywalker Ranch,” he explains. “This
meant we had access to a lot of materials from the license. Heading
up this process was LucasFilm veteran Paul Topolos [Lead Artist]
who oversaw this effort.

of collectibles (including flying cars and
missions played from the perspective of
the Empire), but among these was a short
unlockable documentary about the making
of the game. It features an interview
PUL (e( een ala LE

Ithough Factor 5 had the power and capability to
members of the development team. In

make everything look and sound amazing, a Star
Wars flight game would be nothing without a
fluid control scheme. Rogue Leader excelled in this
capacity, creating a system that could be easily picked
up but allowed those strong with the force to pull off impressive
manoeuvres. Lead Software Engineer, Holger Schmidt, details the
process in tweaking controls to the finest degree possible. “Part
of that was simply a lot of research time and endless iteration,” he
casually explains, “when Rogue Leader came around, we had been
writing code for flight controls and physics for four years and knew
so many subtle tricks that no other flight game had done or would
ever do. The emphasis was on accessibility for the casual player,
right from the very first Rogue Squadron onwards." And whilst
Factor 5 was not the first to create Star Wars flight games, the
team had a clear vision of pick-up-and-play arcade enjoyment when
it came to gameplay approach. “We wanted to be the opposite of
the X-Wing games for the PC. They tried the simulation path, our
inspiration came from the immensely playable Star Wars arcade
vector game that Atari created in 1983,” Holger explains. “In pure
technical terms, the game profited tremendously from the sixty
frames per second. That, and the fact that we were likely the first
to use a technique called triple buffering, made the already decent
controls for Rogue Squadron so much better.”

Tete Beale eee MN

a look into the past as the team worked
on the game. In 2001, this was quite

rare to see, especially in the age before
Internet video streaming. To unlock the
documentary in-game you simply need to
Cored any CCM CMe ti ene cme) me Uy
game, or enter a cheat code.

It’s clear that this dedication and
effort spread throughout the entire
team, meaning they could make fast
progress on the title, even when left
to go it alone. It's arguably one of
the reasons why Rogue Squadron I!
became as successful as it did. “We
finished the design of the game in
early January.” Holger explains. “At
the time there was still the thought
of co-development with mission
designers at LucasArts, but after they
started falling behind on their levels,
we took the huge risk of burdening our four mission designers
at Factor 5 with all levels in the game.” So, in order to make sure
that the plan could be thoroughly executed by everyone involved ,
new individuals were brought in, including those who'd worked on
Nintendo hardware. “One of our new team members [Tony Wong]
came on board from Rare, where he had been Lead Engineer on
Conker’s Bad Fur Day and then the GameCube version of Perfect
Dark that fell apart afterwards.” Holger continues. “He arrived in
January and rounded out an unbelievable engineering, art, and
design team at Factor 5 that crunched all throughout the year to
make the launch date. The only time we let go of the gas pedal
was my wedding in May 2001, which the whole team used for a
welcome break.”

The only time we
let go of the gas pedal
was my wedding in
May 2001, which the
whole team used for a

welcome break

Rogue Squadron Tat oly od

formed the ground
work for the entire
series. Unfortunately,
It’s the only Rogue
Squadron title to be
re-released on digital
platforms like Steam
and GOG.

188 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE

unfortunately
introduced rubbish
on-foot sections,

but it improved the
smoothness of flight
and included a co-op
version of the Rogue
Leader campaign.

Nintendo loved the title because
it played well and was a hardware
showcase, something its own teams are

not as strong in pulling off

ike the plucky group of rogues that took on the
Empire in the 1977 film blockbuster, Factor 5 blasted
ahead to the finish, managing to make one of the
finest Star Wars games to date, all in nine months.
And despite early backstage politics, Julian praises
LucasArts and its ability to let the team follow their vision. “While
LucasArts had very little involvement in Rogue Leader, to their credit
that is what we needed and wanted to pull the game off with the
quality it had within a very tight timeframe. You can only do that
without outside interference and in a tightly bonded group.” Julian
continues by summarising furthers reasons behind LucasArts and
LucasFilm Licensing's laissez-faire attitude. “| think everyone at

» Atthe end of the main campaign, you follow the Millennium Falcon straight into the second Death
Star. It's one of the coolest moments in the game.

» On the Tattooine tutorial level, the time of day changes according to the GameCube'’s internal clock.
It's a simple, but effective little touch.

WHAT
HEY

T
SAID...

Some people
may forgo
sleep with this
one. Exciting
missions,
unbelievable
visuals and
sound, and, like
the first Rogue
and Naboo, a
replay factor
through the roof.
If we had higher
than a 5.0, this
one would get it

» In-engine cinematics are used to help deliver objectiveinformation and key plot points.

THE MAKING OF: STAR WARS: ROGUE LEADER

LucasFilm recognised that we deeply connected with Star Wars and
just instinctively understood the franchise, and that we were truly
fanatical about re-creating the universe perfectly. They respected
that, as opposed to all other Star Wars games that didn't even get
any of the basics right.”

Of course, this allowed the team to have a little fun outside
creating a faithful replication of the Star Wars film universe. “We
had complete autonomy, control, and everything was allowed.”
Eggbrecht emphasises. “The best indication of that is the Busby-
Berkley inspired dancing stormtroopers logo sequence. | never
thought that we would get that by Lucasfilm Licensing, but they
allowed it. It was much more witty and bizarre than our previous logo
sequences. In Rogue Squadron the X-Wing shoots at the private
parts of the LucasArts gold guy, something more of an insider joke
for us, while in Rebel Strike we did get the rights to use the Star
Wars disco theme to go into all-out camp territory, something they
unfortunately later made into a whole product with Star Wars Kinect.
Rogue Leader was the clever in-between.”

On the flipside of this was Nintendo, who had a more hands-
on approach when it came to testing and feedback. “Nintendo
was the opposite, with Ken Lobb — who right afterward went to
Microsoft — being very involved and his Treehouse group giving
us a lot of valuable feedback for every level,” Julian says. It’s also
clear from his testimony that the Big N were supportive of the end
result. “Nintendo loved the title because it played well and was a
hardware showcase, something its own teams are not as strong in
pulling off as well as the perfect playability factor they are known
for. The GameCube was a problematic launch for Nintendo because
Nintendo Japan chose to have Luigi’s Mansion as its main title, a
game that while innovative and quirky, certainly was not what was
needed for mainstream success. It was experimental, while Rogue
Leader provided the big, bold, showcase.”

On release Rogue Leader did brilliantly with critics and proved to be
a huge seller for the GameCube, becoming the system's best-selling
third-party game at launch in the US and entering the UK gaming
charts at number one when it released in May 2002. Its arcade-styled
design philosophy and approach to fantasy fulfilment still make it one
of the most fun and accurate renditions of the original film trilogy.

To this day it is still a must-have for any Star Wars fan or fan of flight
combat games. Unfortunately, the title remains unreleased on newer
platforms (although some pray Disney will alter the deal further in
future), but it’s still more than worth tracking down an old copy and
strapping yourself in for one of the GameCube’s most incredible
experiences (remember the Wii is backwards compatible too). If you
do, it'll be just like Beggar's Canyon back home.

: / NRL W Va: aC

&
"i 190 | 100 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU D

GAMECUBE » 2005 » CAPCOM
| was working on gamesTM
when we had our very first
briefing about Resident
Evil 4. We knew that the
final game wasn't going to be

the same as what had been showcased in
2002, but as we went through the checklist of
changes Capcom had sent us, we still didn’t
believe the game would be that different to
what we had played before. “No zombies,”
read the list, “Individual body parts can be
targeted”, “Leon will be able to ride boats” —
the list of improbable things went on and on
and it sounded, quite frankly, nothing like a
Resident Evil game.

When | finally clamped my eyes on Resident
Evil 4 in our game room a short time later
| immediately looked under the table the
GameCube debug unit was placed on, because

| couldn't believe what my eyes were showing
me. It looked absolutely incredible, and like no i -
other game I'd seen up to that point. In fact, it
still manages to impress me today.

There's a reason Capcom has shamelessly
rereleased Resident Evil 4 multiple times in
the years since its original debut — it remains
one of the best action games ever made.

Yes, its movement feels a little clunky after
experiencing the macabre delights of games
such as Dead Space, and yes, the textures
might look a little basic today, but the pacing,
the boss battles, the OTE cut-scenes... Every
single aspect of Capcom's game is as
magnificent today as it was in 2005. Its
influence can be seen in everything from
Gears Of War to Dead Space 2 and it harks
back to a time when developers still weren't
afraid to take big risks. A true masterpiece that
every gamer needs to experience.

am
a

100 or at PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE | 191

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origins of all
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